


Fairy Tail High, The Original

by StarMouse_Chan



Series: Fairy Tail High [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Attempt at Humor, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Not much plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29463321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarMouse_Chan/pseuds/StarMouse_Chan
Summary: Lucy Heartfilia moved to magnolia and started at FTH at the beginning of her 3rd/junior year . Things started of rocky when she got a detention on the first day, due to a certain salmon-haired boy, but things got better as she grew to love her time and friends at Fairy Tail High.This story is full of heart warming and hilarious scenes, with some romance and drama to come!***So uh, basically, this is a fic that I started writing about 3 years ago and posted on Wattpad as I was writing it, but since I've given up on Wattpad and haven't done anything with this fic in like 2 years, I thout I might as well post it here too.  Cuz I'm still kinda proud of this, but some of it is just... awful, I'm going through and rewriting and adjusting it so it's just generally nicer to read.So, here I present to you the unatlered drivel that my younger self thought up. Enjoy (if you can) <3edit: The first chapter of the rewrite is now up too. It's book two of this series, so if you want to spare you eyes from this mega paragraph tourture, then check that out instead!
Relationships: Evergreen/Elfman Strauss, Gray Fullbuster/Juvia Lockser, Jellal Fernandes/Erza Scarlet, Levy McGarden/Gajeel Redfox, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia
Series: Fairy Tail High [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164104
Kudos: 4





	1. Day 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter of the rewrite is now up too. It's book two of this series, so if you want to spare you eyes from this mega paragraph tourture, then check that out instead!

The gentle breeze drifted over the school grounds. The strong green gate stood firmly around the school enclosing it in a bubble of safety. The great school reached high into the clouds, which floated peacefully in the blue. It really was a sight to behold. 

_ Wow,  _ thought Lucy as she passed through the green gate. She was so awe at the amazing school and engrossed in taking in every sight she could lay her eyes on that she forgot to watch where walked, "Waa- ouch," She yelped as she hit the ground. "Ugh," She groaned annoyedly as she tried to stand. "Need a hand?" Asked the boy in front of her, he had bright salmon hair and dark cat-like eyes. His grin was warm and cheerful. The uniform he was wearing was messy and incomplete, his shirt was untucked, and his blazer sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows. His tie was missing, in its place was a scarf, patterned with horizontal and vertical lines. He held out his hand to the blonde girl he was looking down to, she hesitantly took it. He pulled her to her feet. 

"T-thank you," She said gratefully. 

"You're welcome," He smiled even brighter, "You new here?" 

"Yeah" The girl replied, 

"Well, I'm Natsu, Natsu Dragneel, class 3b." 

"Lucy, Lucy Heart- Just Lucy," 

"Well then, Just Lucy, it was nice meeting you! Gotta run!" The salmon haired boy ran into the distance, leaving Lucy speechless. After she regained her sense, she began to head towards the colossal building before her  _ now, to find Levy. _

The school corridors were busy and bustling with chatter. The walls were lined with rows of lockers, there was a break in the steel boxes just big enough for the windowed door to fit in. Written on the door were the words ' class 3b homeroom' and above the door was a perfectly positioned bucket of water. Connected to the bucket was a long string, the trail lead to a certain salmon haired boy who was non-suspiciously holding the end of the string and whistling every time a person looked his way. He wasn’t the smartest person. A black-haired boy turned the corner, "Hehe," He chuckled to himself. 

Lucy walked up to the door, it read 'class 3b homeroom' "Perfect," She thought aloud. She reached for the handle and pushed it down gently, she was about to enter when she felt a warm hand grab her arm. "Wait Loopy, stay here, you wanna see this," A voice spoke to her. 

"Huh? Natsu? What do-" Her speech was interrupted by being pulled to the side. "Here he comes!! Gihe, watch" There was a huge smile on his face, but this smile was different to the one shown before, it was full of anticipation and giddiness. As a black-haired boy walked through the door, he pulled the string, water came gushing from the bucket overhead. It all landed on the boy, drenching him. He began to turn around, a look of pure anger was plastered on his well put together face, "NATSU!!" He yelled. 

"Haha!! Your face!" Natsu laughed as he pointed a finger at the boy's face with one hand, while grasping his stomach with the other, Lucy couldn’t help but let out a small giggle. "Haha," The boy dryly mocked Natsu before frowning. His frown slowly dissolved, and a smirk formed on his face, "Oh, Erza!" He called. Natsu's face quickly changed from laughter to terror, this alone was starting to bring fear over Lucy's body. 

A girl with beautiful red hair stepped out of the class room, her expression alone would be enough to kill an army, on top of that she was wonderfully built and dressed in a very fitting uniform. The worst part was the badge she wore on her blazer, it read 'Class President' _just great_ Lucy thought _the first day of school and I'm already on the class_ _president's_ _bad side for suspicions of being some idiot's accomplice._ "Morning Erza, haha, how was your summer?" Natsu spoke with fear in his voice. Erza lifted her arm back slightly, still maintaining eye contact, then planted her fist into Natsu's stomach. After she moved her arm back, Natsu began to curl over, "Yep... I deserved that," He said, the pain clear in his voice. "Detention," Erza stated firmly, "Both of you." She turned and walked back into the class room from which she came. Natsu straightened body out just in time to see the black-haired boy smirk then sarcastically salute him before disappearing into the class. "How did I get detention too?" Lucy wined, you could her the poutiness in her voice, she looked over at Natsu who was still recovering from Erza's death blow. "Oh yeah," she began grimly, "I'm the accomplice."

Lucy sighed, she then walked into a classroom full of people she didn’t know. Within the ocean of foreign faces, she saw a droplet of hope in the form of a bluenette girl wearing a white head band and uniform, composed of a black blazer, blue cardigan, black short skirt, black lace up shoes and white thigh-highs. "Levy!" Lucy called out for her friend happily, "Lulu!" She called back excitedly. Levy got up from her set and walked over to Lucy. She lifted up her hand and held them in her own, "I'm so glad to see you! I was starting to get worried." She said, relieved. 

"Tsch," A sound of annoyance came from the boy sitting in the chair behind Levy's. He sat sloppily in his chair his arms crossed and his face turned away. The way he sat caused his shoulders to lean on the back of the seat and his long legs to be under Levy's chair. He had a waist length mane of unruly raven hair and a face covered in metal piercings. "Hey, metal mouth, don’t speak to Levy like that," Commanded a tallish thin ginger boy. "Yeah!" Said his slightly shorter, rounder brunette friend. The raven-haired boy looked at them, rolled his eyes then looked away, slumping further into his chair. "Who are they?" Lucy asked,  _ to me they look like her own personal fanclub  _ Lucy thought while watching them do Levy inspired artistic dance. "Oh, well that’s Jet," she began, pointing at the ginger. "That’s Droy," She pointed to the rounded individual. "And that’s Gajeel," She finished before returning to her seat, she then patted the seat next to her, gesturing for Lucy to sit. She did so. 

"Everyone find your seats," A female voice called, it was Erza standing at the front of the class. A man with navy blue hair walked in the room, he was wearing dark brown trousers that gripped tightly to his legs and a black shirt with a white long-sleeved knee-length coat. He began to speak, "Hello class, for those of you who don’t know me, I am Mr Conbolt your new homeroom teacher," His voice was clear, and he spoke gently. "Mornin' Macao!" Lucy heard a voice call from a desk away. It was Natsu. "How many times will I have to say it Natsu? Mr Conbolt not Macao." There was slight anger in his voice, but it was still clear. "Sure sir," this last comment achieved him a stare from non-other than the class president, Erza. That shut him up. "Ok, now, everyone stay quiet for the principal's start of year address," Announced Mr Conbolt, he nodded to Erza, she returned the gesture before taking her seat next to Lucy.  _ Great, next to the girl who already doesn’t like me,  _ thought Lucy as she held her head in her hand. Ding – Dong – Ding, the speakers chimed in, breaking her chain of thought and drawing her attention. A deep, raspy voice began to speak on the mic, broadcasting to every class in the school. "Hello, my children, welcome to another year at Fairy Tail High! I warmly welcome all first years and new students to this school. Let's all get along well to have a fantastic school year, and always remember our school motto, 'No matter how far apart we may be, I will always be with you in your heart, thank you." The speakers chimed out and the students attention was redirected towards the man standing at the whiteboard. "Class, listen up for the register. Cana?"

"Here sir," 

"Natsu?" 

"Yep," 

"Jellal?" He continued to call out names to the class, getting small answers from all the students. "And lastly, Elfman?" He called finishing the list in front of him, "Manly!" A very tall and muscular white-haired boy yelled from the back of the class, earning a snicker from some of the pupils. _Good, now I know everyone's names_ Lucy said in her head. _"_ Good, now, here are your timetables, put them somewhere safe, you don’t want to be losing them on the first day," He handed the sheets out, placing them on people's desks. As he got to Natsu's desk he looked him in the eye, "Do you, Natsu?" He asked sarcastically. Natsu folded his arms and adopted a pouty look on his face, "That happened once, stop bringing it up." He grumbled, Lucy let out a quiet giggle, _I think I'm_ _going to like this school_ she thought as a smile crept onto her face. "Flame brain," A voice called from across the class, it was the black-haired boy. "What'd you call me, ice princess?" Natsu asked fiercely, turning around in his chair to face the boy. "Ok, Natsu, Gray, enough o-," His speech was interrupted by the bell, it's loud shrieking was followed by the sounds of rustling bags and squeaky chairs. 

The busty blonde got up from her chair, she gently smiled at Erza as she picked up her bag. "Hey, Lu, what's your first lesson?" Levy asked eagerly as she held her hands up to her chest hoping her best friend shared her class. "Um.." Lucy fumbled with the piece of paper that she slipped into her pocket, "Science, you?" She asked. Levy's expression changed into one of disappointment, her arms flopped down to her sides, "English.." She spoke quietly, she felt her hope get crushed by the giant boot of reality. "Come on Lucy, don't want to be late on the first day," Erza commanded as she began to walk away, her beautiful hair swaying elegantly. "Yes ma'am," Lucy let out in a high-pitched frightful tone  _ I guess we share this class then. _

_ *** _

The book covered walls of the library climbed high up towards the ceiling. The book section of the library was quiet and usually deserted, apart from the occasional book nerd, most people opted for the easier way out when it came to homework and projects, the computers. Due to its lack of people, it was a hotspot for young couple to get all touchy-feely during school, and the librarian, Miss Strauss, didn’t seem to care, as long as they kept it down. Lucy walked into the abyss of books, closely followed by her petite friend, Levy. She was once again in awe at the sight and she once again lost her balance as she looked up as she walked, rather than focusing on what she was doing. The blonde began to fall but was suddenly caught by two strong arms.

"Erza?!" She asked as she looked up towards the blood-haired beauty, slightly confused and slightly relieved and scared all at the same time. Lucy regained her balance and began to speak, "Sorry... I-I didn’t mean to." She played with her skirt nervously as she looked down to the ground in embarrassment, Erza chuckled lightly. "Lucy, there's no need to be sorry, I should apologize for the way I acted towards you earlier, I was rude," Erza confidently admitted, she bowed her head, her crimson hair falling gracefully around her shoulders and back. "No no, you don't need to apologize, you were just doing your job, that’s all, nothing bad taken from it," Lucy replied friendlily, looking Erza in the eye and smiling a bright smile, similar to the one she was gifted by a certain salmon-haired boy. Erza smiled as she held out her hand, "Friends?" She asked eagerly. The blonde took her hand and shook it gently, "Friends!" Lucy replied mirroring her spirts. Levy smiled at both of them warmly, "So then, would you like to join us for lunch Erza?" 

"I'd love too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here we are. If you managed to get though that formatting nightmare... good for you, I guess? Well, anyway, I'm currently working on the new version which... Probably won't be much better story wise, but should be a hell of a lot easier to read. Thanks for reading <3


	2. A certain salmon haired boy

Lucy walked through the tides of people, the bell had gone, and everyone was exiting their classes, preparing to go home. But not her. "Ugh," she groaned as she walked up to a door. The door was windowed with text written across the glass panel, it read 'Extracurricular 1', "I can believe I'm doing this." She reached out for the door handle, grasped it and pushed it down slightly to reveal a class room, completely empty apart from a certain salmon-haired boy. He looked up to Lucy and smiled the same bright smile as earlier at the gate, except this time it wasn't warming and kind to her, it was annoying  _ how can he be so happy? We're in detention. _ "Hey Loopy," He slightly elongated the Os as he spoke, proving his morale. She glared at him, a frown on her face, "That's not my name." He chuckled slightly and put his hands up as if he was surrendering, this aggravated her more. "Jeez, Luce I was only joking," He said putting his arms down and crossing them over his chest. He was sitting on a chair third row from the front, a chair away from the window. His legs were on his desk, crossed at the ankles. The blonde walked over to the chair next to him, she placed her bag on the floor as she flopped into the chair. She sighed quietly, "How can you make jokes? We're in detention." 

"It's not that bad," He exaggerated the 'that' when he spoke, his happiness was now becoming even more apparent as a huge smile formed on his face. "But this is a punishment," Lucy grumbled as she looked towards the overly happy boy. "Not the way I see it," He began, "Think of it as... A club for making friends," As he spoke his hands moved around as if he was a salesman pitching a product idea to a business. "But we're being held here, like prisoners." Her body curled over, and she hit her head on the desk in front of her. "Well, if we're prisoners then our prison guard should be fired, look at him," Lucy moved her chin slightly and looked up without lifting her head of the desk. She saw a thin old man sitting at a table, he was leaning back in his chair, his eyes shut, his cross shaped nose and moustache moving up and down slightly as he quietly snored. "He's been sawing logs this whole time," Natsu said a twinge of disappointment in his voice. The blonde turned her head so that she was looking at Natsu, his face went blank for a few seconds before a smile grew on his face and eyes widened. "How 'bout we play a game?" He looked towards her, she narrowed her eyes, "What kind of game?" She asked suspiciously eyeing him up, "The question game," He stated happily. 

"What's the question game?" She inquired, her voice was riddled with curiosity. "You've never played it?" 

"No, I didn’t have many friends in my old school," Lucy lifted her head of the desk, intrigued by his game proposition. "Well, we'll have to change that," Natsu smiled brightly, the blonde graciously returned the smile. "Okay, so here's how ya play, so I will state; 'I am Natsu Dragneel, ask me anything', kay? Now you." She looked, slightly confused, at the salmon-haired boy, he looked back at her, raising his eyebrows in anticipation. "Um.. I am Lucy Heartfilia, ask me anything," She stated, still confused. "Good, now ask me five questions,"

"How is this a game? Isn't it just us interrogating each other?" 

"Well it's not really a game, when you put it that way, it's getting to know each other, oh! One more thing, you can't ask the same question twice, but you can ask it in a different form,"

"Kay."

"You go first," He brought his legs down off the desk as he turned his body to face her and put his arm on the back of his chair.

"Okay, what's your favourite colour?"

"Hmm, red! 'Cuz it's the colour of fire!"

"Favourite food?"

"I like a lot of food, but I love anything spicy."

"Umm... What's the thing you hate most?"

"Travelling, I get super motion sick."

"Who's your best friend?"

"I don’t really have one,"

"Why?" There was slight sadness in her voice,

"No one's really that close to me, I guess. Gray's my friend, Erza too, but I wouldn't say BEST friend."

"Wait, if you guys are friends, why are you pranking him?"

"Nu-uh, you had your five questions, I can't answer that,"

"What? I only had four, 'why' wasn't a question." She pouted,

"I'm not the best at English, but last time I checked if something has a question mark, it's a question," She crossed her arms sulkily.

"Fine, ask away!"

"What school were you at before coming here?"

"I went to Love and Lucky, I didn’t really like it though, I'm happy that I moved."

"What colour is your bedroom?"

"What kind of question is that?" She asked, confused, raising one eyebrow.

"Just answer it, okay, I know what I'm doing!"

"Fine... It's light pink, but I want it to be baby blue because that’s my favourite colour." She explained, her eyes widened at the end when she realised why he asked the question  _ wow, he's smarter than he seems. _

"Who's your bestie?" 

"I don’t have one yet, my closest friend is Levy, but I don’t know if we're 'besties'" As she said 'besties' she made quotation marks with her hands.

"Family?" He asked,

"Mum and Dad, no siblings. Although, you know Mr Leo?" Natsu nodded, listening intently. "He's my cousin, so if he does anything I can report to my mum and she'll tell her sister."

"That’s some power you got there,"

"I know," She smiled, "Okay, last question."

"Do you have any pets?"

"No, but I really want a little white dog,"

"What breed?" He asked,

"Okay, if I can't pull that trick, you can't either." She crossed her arms as she quietly giggled.

"Damn, I thought you wouldn't notice," He joked, playfully slapping his knee. Lucy giggled, covering he mouth slightly with her hand.

"Don't cover your mouth when you laugh," He began,

"Huh?"

"If you cover your mouth I can't see your pretty smile," He stated, smiling happily. A rose glow formed on Lucy's face  _ p-pretty smile? _

"Okay, why are you pranking Gray?"

"So, last year we were playing truth or dare and Elfman asked me a question, I gave an answer that Gray didn’t agree with, so he decided to settle things we would have a prank off. It was set for the first three months of the next year, whoever had the most successful pranks would be right." He spoke proudly.

"Couldn't you have just asked an impartial third party and have them decide?" She asked blandly, confused by his stupidity.

"No, that's stupid, why would we do that?" Natsu questioned, giving the blonde a 'really?' Look.

"Okay then, why did he call you flame brain and you call him ice princess? That's one question, by the way," She clarified,

"He calls me flame brain cuz I'm good with fire and burn stuff in science."  _ Great, I'm friends with a pyromaniac  _ Lucy though as she listened. "I call him ice princess cuz," He snickered, " Don’t tell anyone I told you this," She nodded, the anticipation almost killing her as different scenarios flooded her brain. "He ice-skates," Natsu broke out in laughter. The blonde started to let her imagination run wild and shortly joined the boy in laughter.

"Really?" She asked, catching her breath, a joyful expression on her face.

"Yeah, like competitive figure-skating." The salmon-haired boy mustered between fits of laughter.

"Okay, okay, question four. Do you have any family?"

"Not really, I live with my foster father, Igneel. He adopted me when I was young. Apparently, my Mum and Dad died in a car accident along with my brother, they also say that I was there but I don’t remember. The memory was lost due to head trauma, all I remember was fire, then seeing Igneel and Orra, my foster parents."

Lucy looked at him in shock,  _ how can someone with so much sorrow in their heart be so happy all the time? _ "Oh, wow... I-I'm sorry."

"It's fine, I don’t mind talking about it, no one else has ever really asked before though, just feels kinda strange, ya know?"

"Pets?" She asked, trying to change the subject and avoid the awkward silence that was about to fall over them.

"Yep. A cat, Happy. My turn!" He chimed, "Who was your first boyfriend?"

"Never had one,"

"Whaa-?! How?" The shock and confusion were flooding onto his face, it was as if the dam that held back his emotions suddenly gave way and flowed into the town that was his brain.

"I don’t know, I never really liked anyone that way plus my dad was really strict about it," She looked down and played with her hands as she spoke quietly.

"But you're pretty, I find it hard to believe that you've never had a boyfriend." His gentle words caused a blush to glide onto her face.

"You think I'm pretty?" She asked nervously, still looking down to conceal her blush. 

"Well, you're not bad to look at. You look a little heavy though." He joked, smirking.

"Watch it! If I were you I'd stop there, bub. These boots aren't just for walking!" She threatened, angrily staring at him.

"Calm down Luce, I was kidding!" He began, "Have you had your first kiss?"

"N-no, I haven't." She felt embarrassed to say that she was seventeen and hadn't had her first kiss.

***

"Favourite pick up line?" Lucy asked, watching the boy in front of her, who she had become quite fond of, rack his brain.

"Hmm... 'Are you flat ground? Cuz when I think of you all my sickness goes away' or 'you must be fire cuz you're hot and I know that if I mess with you I'll get burned but I'll do it anyway to feel your heat."

"Aww~ cute," She giggled.

"What about you?"

"Umm... You're like a fallen star and I'm like the night sky, you're beautiful, unique and I feel empty without you." She smiled graciously and sighed gently at the end of her sentence as she moved a bit of hair behind her ear.

"Th-that's... Wow, um." As he tried to speak a small blush formed on his tan skin; Lucy noticed this, it made her chuckle to herself.

"Mmhmm," The blonde hummed before giggling.

"Oh no, the fair maiden has struck me down with her beautiful words," he joked, placing a hand on his chest and feigning pain.

"Quite the Casanova, aren't you?" She teased sarcastically.

"Shut up, at least mine were funny," He turned his head, pouting. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, you're still reading this? Cool, I guess. I remember I had a lot of fun when I firt wrote this, I think I still have the notebook I used to plan the dialogue somewhere... I was going for playfull banter, but it comes across as kinda forced I think. I'll try to fix this. No promises though...


	3. Awkwardness in adolencence

After seemingly hours of talking, the bell rang signalling the end of all clubs and detentions. It's deafening shriek filled the empty halls, echoing as it hit the locker lined walls. Lucy stood from her seat, the time she'd spent sharing stories and interests left a delighted grin on her pale face. She headed for the door, closely followed by a certain salmon-haired boy. They walked out in to the corridor, continuing their conversation as they did so, "See, detention wasn't so bad." Natsu stated, a broad smile on his face. "I guess it wasn't, maybe I'll go again," She joked while giggling. "Try not to make a habit out of it, Miss Heartfilia," A deep, raspy spoke from ahead of them. 

A small, old man was walking towards them, he was dressed in a white shirt, which was mostly covered by a purple vest, and oxford blue suit trousers. His face was relaxed, and he held his hands behind his back. "I won't sir," Lucy replied trying not to laugh and act as serious as possible, this made Natsu struggle to keep a straight face, which intern made it harder for Lucy to hold back laughter so on and so forth. The old man redirected his attention to the boy holding back hysterics, his face tensed as it was flooded with seriousness, his eyes narrowed. "Mr Dragneel, if you're going to break the rules, please don't drag others down with you, especially nice young ladies," The man's voice was firm and riddled with annoyance. "Yes, Principal Makarov," "Good, move along now, this is a hall way not a gawking area, scram" He shooed them away with his hand, they quickly scurried passed him and continued walking the way they were.

As they walked down the hall they came to a door, printed on the glass panel was 'English 2', Lucy branched off from her new friend, and walked towards the door. "Where ya going?" The boy asked, his voice riddled with confusion, "I left my book in there when I had English, I just wanna get it." She stepped closer to the door, "Kay." The blonde pushed the handle down gentle then pushed the door open, expecting to see an empty class. Surprisingly, her expectation was not a reality, in fact, what she saw was much, much worse than an empty class. She froze in her stance. "Luce?" No reply, "What is-" He walked next to her and peered into the class, all his questions were answered. He also froze in his where he stood.

Perched on the front desk was a radiant woman with hair the colour of blooming pink roses, that was curled at the end which made it look voluminous. She was wearing a short, sleeveless white dress that hugged her curves snugly. There was a hand placed gently on her waist and another on the back of her neck. These hands belonged to the man which had his tongue locked with hers in battle. He had long spiked ginger hair and black framed glasses. He was clad in a black suit and blood red tie and had pale hand flung around his neck, softly stroking his napes and playing with tufts of his amber cane hair.

Their faces were blank. Natsu was about to clear his voice to announce their presence when Lucy interrupted, "Leo?!" She asked/yelled. The man broke away from the radiant woman, who was blushing profusely, then turned to look at the duo. "Lucy?!" The man said, exasperatedly before walking to the door. Lucy moved out of the door way to let him pass, then watched him shut the door behind himself, she folded her arms. "Lucy, what are you doing here?" He whisper-shouted to her. "I had a detention, what are _you_ doing here?" She asked dryly. "You got a detention on your first day?" 

"Yes and stop trying to change the subject!" She whisper-shouted back to him. "Fine, just don't tell your mum," He pleaded.

"Are you asking me to lie to my darling mother?" She said in an offended tone.

"Oh, stop it with that act, we all know you lie to her all the time!"

"That is not true! How dare you accuse me of something so horrible?" She put her hand on her heart, trying to look shocked at the accusation. But ultimately failed when he gave her a 'really' look, "Fine, I won't tell her," She began. "Oh, thank you so much Lucy!" The man said, a huge smile covering his face, "Wait, I'm not done," She continued, "I won't tell her AS LONG AS you don't tell her about this."

"This?" He asked, she nodded quickly with her eyes shut. He looked to her, then to Natsu, then back to her again; his eyes widened with realisation. "Ohh, I get it~" He smirked, Lucy and Natsu looked at him in confusion, "Huh?" The blonde asked, "You guys hooked up, didn't you~." Their faces filled with a red blush as they avoided eye contact, "EH!?" They yelled in unison.

***

"Wait, so you guys didn't hook up?" Leo confirmed, disappointedly. "No," Natsu said, "Yeah, not in a million years." Lucy said, making Leo laugh nervously, "Well then, this just became a lot more awkward." Lucy looked at him, glaring daggers, "As if it wasn't already 'Mr Goes Around Kissing His Colleagues'." He laughed nervously again, "Come on Natsu, be for things somehow get more awkward." She started to walk away, Natsu followed quickly. "Leo?" A timid voice asked, poking her head around the door slightly. He did nothing but smirk, walk through the door then close it behind him in response.

"Hmm," Lucy hummed, a relaxed smile on her face, her cocoa eyes gently closed. The slow breeze drifted past her, her hair lifting and swaying beautifully as it glided on the wind like a majestic eagle soaring through the afternoon sky. _It's such a lovely day,_ she though as she stretched her arms above her head; she sighed. Natsu looked her, he cocked his head slightly before smiling, she noticed this and smiled back at him.

They continued walking through the afternoon sun till they got to Lucy's house, it was a large, two store house with a door central on the first floor. It was white with a roof covered in black tiles and had two garages attached. One either side. At the base of the house was a large garden full of freshly mown jade grass, that stretched from the windows to the white picket fence that enclosed it. Against the windows there were rows of shrubbery, shining shades of emerald and honey in the golden evening.

The duo walked up to the start of the drive way, they exchanged goodbyes and smiles before Lucy walked towards her house, she skipped across the cobblestone path, a satisfied smile still on her face. She opened the door and stepped in; she began to head toward the stairs when a head poked around from out of the kitchen. A blonde woman with a very similar appearance to Lucy looked to the girl and smiled as she spoke, "Oh Lucy, he's adorable!" Lucy was very confused and kind of embarrassed by this statement, "What?"

***

Earlier that day...

"Well, that's all for today class," A tall man dressed in a dark suit began, "Remember to bring your books baack tomorrow." What was peculiar about this man was that when he said 'back' he extended the a, somewhat like a sheep or goat. The students in the class got out of their seats and collected their things, the bell had just gone signalling the end of the day. Levy picked up her stuff as she thought, _Lu managed to get detention, so I guess I'll be walking home alone today,_ she sighed as she headed for the door. "Miss Mcgarden," She turned her head towards the suited man, "May I have a word?" The bluenette turned to face him, starting to walk closer, "Yes, Mr Capricorn?" She now stood near him looking up, listening while he talked. "May I ask a favour of you?" He asked, she nodded in response, "I want you to tutor someone for me, if that’s ok." She thought about it for a second, _I mean, nothing bad would happen, right? "_ Sure sir, who?" He said his answer, the bluenette blinked a couple of times in disbelief, then regretted all her life decisions up to this point.

She walked out of school, taking a different route to which she would normally take. As she paced quickly to catch up with the person she was told to tutor, she thought through everything that just happened. ~Flash back~

"W-who?!" Levy asked trying not to shout at her maths teacher, still shocked and failing to convince her self that she misheard. "Gajeel. Like I said, I think he has potential but isn't fully applying himself; I want you to help him study and bring him out of his shell, I have seen that he doesn't talk to many people so, he's probably lonely." The man spoke. _He's lonely because he's a cocky rebel who always kicks my chair in homeroom, he deserves to be alone,_ the bluenette thought while remembering the time he kicked her halfway through writing, making her draw a line in her book. "I haven't told him yet so, Miss Levy, if you could would you catch up with him now to tell him?" He asked politely, she felt like screaming 'hell no' at him, but instead she just nodded and left the classroom quickly.

~Flash back ends~

Levy, caught up in her thought, almost didn't notice the figure she was closing in on. There, standing ahead of her, was the back of a tall man with a waist length mane of unruly raven hair. He was leaning his shoulder on a tree near the parking lot, presumably waiting for someone. "Gajeel?" She asked to get his attention, he turned around and grunted at her as teenaged boy greeting that she was probably supposed to understand but unfortunately got lost in translation. His face was unimpressed and bored, as if he had been waiting for a long time, even though it had only been ten or fifteen minutes. _Jeez, so impatient, "_ Um... Well, Mr Capricorn asked me to tell you th-." She noticed that he glanced over to the car that just entered the car park, it was a black Maserati GranTurismo. It pulled into an empty space near the gate. Her speech was then interrupted by something weird, he walked over to her, his large strides closing the distance quickly, he then placed the book he was holding on her head and began to walk away. Levy was battling internally, trying not to yell at him, her calm side lost as her anger showed, "Excuse me?! Do I look like a bookshelf to you?!" He turned around and raised his eyebrow, then looked her up and down; stopping slightly at her hips and chest, he then looked her in the eye. She blushed slightly, suddenly feeling exposed. The girl met his eyes, they were blood red and full of an unreadable mix of emotion. "Actually, yeah. Y'er just as flat and boring as one. Although, ye'd probably make a pretty crappy bookshelf, y'er so short holding two books would be a challenge for yea. Wouldn't it, shrimp?" He said grufly, a smirk appearing on his face. "Ugh, shut up! You're such a jerk, I came here to help you, you know!" She puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "Stop talkin', bookshelves ain't supposed to talk. Even crappy ones keep their mouths' shut,"

"What?! Bookshelves don’t have mouths!"

"How'd yea know that, shrimp?"

"Just shut up, ok? Before you say something else stupid, I'm only here to tell you that I have to tutor you," 

"Sure, whatever," He said as he started to walk away again. She frowned, _why is he so rude and cocky?_ "Can I at least have your number to arrange a time or something?" The man pulled a piece of paper out of his blazer pocket and scribbles down on it, he then scrunched it up into a ball and threw it at her. The bluenette caught it above her head, "Nice catch," He mumbled as he walked off and climbed into the car. Levy started to head home.

He sat back and slouched into the leather seat, sighing as he put his bag down. "Love struck?" A young female voice giggled from the seat behind him, she had long lapis blue hair and chocolate brown eyes. She was dressed in a cute school uniform. The long-haired man glared at her, she just giggled, unfazed by his behaviour. "So... Who is she?" Asked the man behind the wheel, he looked very similar to Gajeel, except he had shoulder length hair tied back into a pony tail and his face had only one piercing, under his lip. "No one," Gajeel answered looking out the window, watching the world passing by. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awkwardness in adolencence... Well, awkward is right... God, this is so... painful. I remember when I wrote that kissing scene it was the first time I had written anything vaguely sexual, and for some reason I was proud of it? I remember showing it to my friends at school without telling them I'd written it to see their reactions cuz yeah I was that sad. I mean, I guess it could be worse, but I'll try to make it better.


	4. Falling for you

"Ok then, now that you know what to do, without blowing it up, get into your partners and do it yourself and record your findings." A tall man with slicked back ginger hair said looking sheepishly at the failed experiment. He wore a white shirt, tucked into black suit trousers and a gold belt around his hips. Lucy walked over to Natsu, he was doodling on the corner of his page, completely oblivious to everything around him. She sighed, reaching out her hand to poke him, when he suddenly looked towards her smiling. 

"I'll get the equipment!" He said excitedly getting up and practically skipping to the cupboards, "Do you even know what to get?" Lucy called out to the him, he answered waving his hand at her, as if to say 'pft, totally'. She just rolled her eyes, picked up her book and stood by their work station. The salmon-haired boy walked over carrying the equipment, mostly things that they didn't even need, and placed it all on the table. "Why'd you get a Bunsen burner?" The blonde asked, looking down at the instructions, "We don't need it, go put it back." He completely ignored her and began to set it up, "What are you doing? I said put it away," She commanded in vain. He then reached into his blazer pocket and pulled out a small silver lighter that had a dragon on one side and black flames creeping round the other. "Why do you have a lighter in school?" She asked, trying not to be too loud because she knew that she would somehow get in trouble for this too. "You could get in trouble for having that," He turned on the gas and held the flame over it, the burner ignited into a sapphire blue. Natsu smiled, turning it onto the safety flame, "Hey, pyro, are you listening to me?!" Lucy spoke angrily. "Huh?" He looked to her, slightly confused, "Did you say something, Luce?" She was so angry you could almost see the steam coming out her ears, he tilted his head to the side slightly, kinda like a puppy, before speaking, "Why ya so pissed?" His smile turned into a look of confusion. Looking into his onyx eyes, she sighed as her anger diffused and she gave up on trying to stop him.

Natsu speed over to his bag, it was a black suede shoulder bag with a brown foe leather strap and closure with brass buckles. He opened it and pulled out a black glove, then walked back over. "Wanna see something cool?" He asked with a smirk as he put the glove on. "Sure..." She said hesitantly, narrowing her eyes at him. He then put his gloved hand into the fire and then out again, holding the flames. "See? Cool, ain't it?" He looked at the fire, still smirking, then stepped closer to the blonde. "Uh, Natsu, what are you doing?" She spoke with slight fear in her voice as she backed away from the fire in the boy's hand.

Lucy continued to back away until she bumped into something, this something turned out to be the back of Scarlet-red, none other than class president Erza. The blood-haired woman fell forward slightly into the man next to her, who caught her, one hand on her shoulder and the other placed gently on her waist. He had dark azure hair that perfectly framed his face and piercing mahogany eyes; one of which was centred in an intricate crimson tattoo. The blonde quickly turned around apologizing, she was met with no reply as she watched the to stand looking into each-others eyes. 

"Don't bother," Natsu said, fire gone from his hand, "She can't hear you." He smirked, "She's too deep in love~ to care," He laughed. A slight rose glow appeared on her face, this deepened into a red flush after hearing the boy's words, noticing this the mahogany eyed man removed his hands and watched as her eyes turned from amazement to anger. She turned around, glaring at the salmon-haired boy, a fiery aura surrounding her and a blush still on her face, her mocha eyes glaring daggers. _She's blushing? Hmm,_ Lucy thought a smirk appearing on her face. "Uhh, hi Erza, haha, how are you?" He asked, nervously scratching the back of his neck. "How dare you embarrass me?!" She yelled, picking up a ruler and raising it above her head, "H-hey now, Erza... W-we can talk about this." The blonde said failing to diffuse the situation. Erza looked to her briefly, but long enough to scare her half to death, she immediately shut up. Suddenly, a hand was lightly squeezing her shoulder, she lowered the ruler and looked towards the owner of the hand. "No need for violence," His voice was calm and serious, but he carried a gentle smile on his face, "why don't you put the equipment away and go sit down? I'll join you in a sec, okay?" She looked to Natsu one last time, with a stare sharp enough to cut glass, then did what the man said. 

Once she had sat down and was looking the other way, the man's eyes shot back towards the salmon-haired boy, they pierced through him like lasers. "Don't do that again, you could hurt someone," He said in a stoic, firm voice. "Yes sir!" He squeaked as the man walked past him. As he did, he use a rolled-up book to hit the back of his head; he then sat down next to the blood haired beauty, who was smiling like none of this ever happened. Lucy snickered, "Yes sir?" She asked mockingly. He began to sulk, "Shut up, he's scary ok?" "Uh hu, very," She retorted sarcastically.

***

The bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson and the start of lunch. Everyone exited their classrooms and flooded into the crowded halls. "Hey Erza, do you want to eat lunch with us?" Lucy asked, picking up her bag and putting her books away. "That would be nice," She replied, smiling sweetly, she then looked behind, "Jellal?" The woman looked at him questioningly. "Sure, I'll join," She smiled and they all headed out the room.

*** 

As they walked down the corridor, to the cafeteria, there was a woman with pearl hair and porcelain skin putting up flyers on a noticeboard. She was dressed in a knee length black dress that hugged her curvaceous body. It had a deep V-cut neckline with a with a white bow in the centre of her cleavage. The woman turned around as the group passed by her, "Oh, Erza!" She called, "Come here a sec, I think you'll like these posters." The red head turned around, went to her then looked at the poster after being handed one. As she read it something in her brain clicked and her face lit up, stars in her eyes. Lucy stepped over to her, looked over her shoulder, then she shared the expression of the red head woman. The poster read 'Class 3b Singing Competition', the porcelain skin woman began to talk, "You're new, aren't you?" She directed her speech to Lucy, the blonde nodded, "Well, I'm Miss Strauss, it's nice to meet you." She smiled kindly. Her smile was gently and real, Lucy could tell that she was a genuinely nice person, she returned the smile graciously. "Miss Strauss is the Head of Music and a librarian," Erza stated, "She is also a very nice person who cares about her students," Jellal continued. They were talking to the blonde as if they were her parents convincing her to stay with the nice lady while they went out. "Oh, you two, you flatter me," Miss Strauss put a hand to her chest and waved the other as is to say 'oh stop'. "Say, Lucy, do you sing?" Erza asked, "Umm kinda, I mean, I like singing and I'm okay at it." Lucy replied nervously, Natsu standing behind her looking bored.

"Can we go now, Luce?" She turned to him, he was frowning, "I'm hungry and we've been here for ages." He whined, the blonde smiled gently, "Sure." She felt like she was talking to a four-year-old, but she couldn’t help smiling at his childishness. Even though they'd only known each other for a day, the bond they shared was as if they had known each other for years. They all began to leave, "Oh, Erza, can I talk to you after school?" The teacher said, "Yes Miss, I'll talk to you then," The red-haired girl spoke before leaving with the others.

***

Leading from a locker lined hallway was a windowed door with the words 'Geography 2', behind that door was a room. Inside that room were columns of desks with chairs, facing a whiteboard were a man stood. He had light brown hair that sat on his head in a long tubular form and small, nearly shut, eyes. The man was clothed in a light green shirt, covered in darker green flowers, and coral trousers that lead to black shoes. In the seats that faced the man and the whiteboard were students. In the back right-hand corner of the class were three students, the first was a girl on the table second from the back. She had tawny locks and hickory eyes, which were hidden behind silver framed glasses, and was wearing: a white shirt, black tie and black short skirt. Her tie was tied loosely so that is hung halfway down her chest and the top three buttons of her shirt undone, revealing her cleavage. Sitting in the desk trailing hers were two boys, one had long parakeet hair and a neat uniform. The other, taller and lanker, boy had strategically placed indigo hair and a messy uniform.

"Okay, pipsqueaks, I want you to get into partners for this assignment. Choose someone and start discussing what natural disaster you are going to do your project on. Oh, and if you take too long choosing I'll arrange you myself so hurry up." The man at the front of the class said dryly before sitting down and sighing. "Hey, Mr Mine, why are you so down today?" A black-haired boy in the first rows of desks asked, "My wife took away my nicotine fix," He stated, rubbing his face and sighing again.

The tawny-haired girl turned around to face the boys behind her, "So, gentlemen w-," She spoke with a clear and deep voice, but was interrupted mid-sentence by the taller boy. "Sorry Ever, me and my boy Freed are teaming up for this one," He said glancing over at the other boy and holding out his fist to be bumped. The parakeet-haired boy, Freed, looked at the fist as if to say 'no', but then reluctantly bumped it. Evergreen frowned angry before turning around and scanning the class room. She folded her arms, then landed on a tall, muscular, white- haired man, she stared at him, the frown still on her face.

"Hey, dude, Evergreen's staring at you." Gray said to his white-haired friend, nudging him with is elbow, "Huh?" He looked over to her, and frowned, "She looks really mad, what did you do to piss her off?" The icy boy asked, "Nothing, I barely talk to her, all she does is yell at me for being manly." The tawny girl got up from her seat and walked over. She stood in front of the muscular man's desk, she then slammed her hands on his desk, getting his and his friend’s attention. "Be my partner," She commanded angrily yet shyly, the boy looked at her confusedly. "You know that there are nicer ways to ask someone out, right?" Gray retorted, smirking like he had won the lottery. This achieved him a sigh from the white-haired man and a glare from Ever, a glare so cold that it could turn you to stone at one look. "Why do you wanna be my partner? Don’t you have other friends you could choose?" He asked ignoring his friend, "No, Elfman, I don’t have other friends. Bickslow and Freed are partners, other boys look at me weird and all the girls in this class are jealous and hate me," She snapped angrily. "I don’t look at you funny," Gray said, slightly offended. "I know, you're just a prick," The tawny girl stated dryly, not taking her eyes off Elfman while he made his decision. "Fine," He finally replied after thinking it through, "Thanks." She smiled slightly, sat down next to them and began to discuss their project with the muscular man. 

***

Gray walked out of the school building, towards the car park, his bag in hand and his blazer messily flung over his shoulder, held between his thumb and pointer finger. As he stepped along the gravel path, his shoes graced the floor, inching closer to the rows of metal boxes; he stopped. A sigh escaped his lips as he admired the sky, it was beautiful this time of day, full of shades of blue, purple and yellow in kind of surreal in a peaceful way. Since he had stayed back after school to start a project, the setting sun and autumn breeze were a companied by a tranquillity that fell over the school.

Suddenly the silence was interrupted, a swish of clothing came from a nearby tree, then a hat and book fell before a scurrying sound was heard. Gray walked over to the dropped items and picked them up. The hat was dark blue with a fluffy rim and pretty, yellow flower. The book had a brown leather cover with the words 'Juvia Lockser' written neatly on the font, "Juvia..?" Gray thought out loud, trying to remember her. She was a shy girl with wavy blue hair and noticeably nice face and body. 

He then opened the book, on the first page was a beautifully draw picture of her with the caption 'A drawing of me by Gaji'. The dark-haired boy looked at the picture in shock _Gajeel drew this?! Wait, they’re friends?!_ He thought, surprised at the fact that someone so gruff would draw so well and even more surprised that he would be friends with such a kind, quiet girl. The turned the page, to his horror, there was a photo of him sleeping in class. On the page opposite it was a sketch of the photo with word like 'cute' and 'sweet' written around it. On the next was a list of words that describe him, 'Gray~sama is: kind, cute, brave, funny, friendly and so on'. Next to it was a list entitled 'Reasons why I like Gray~sama', he began to read it in his head, feeling flattered and creeped out at the same time, an overwhelming combination of emotion. The boy was taken out of his thoughts by a female voice, "Gray! Come on," Called a woman from inside a car that had pulled up into the waiting area of the car park. He quickly put the book into his bag and ran to the car, his thoughts all over the place. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh! Hi, you're still here? Um, hi, I wasn't really expecting anyone to get this far... So, uh, how've you been? Have you eaten today? Are you staying hydrated? Remember to take care of yourself, okay? Tbh, I still kinda like this chapter... I love disaster science teacher Gildarts, awkward Erza and Natsu the pyromaniac.


	5. New found friends

~Flash back~

*Text*

Levy: Hey Gajeel, it's Levy

When should I come over?

The bluenette stared at her phone, waiting for the reply she needed.  _ He's seen the message, why isn't he replying?  _ She thought angrily, her cheeks were puffed out like a little pufferfish. She sighed and stood up from her bed, placed her phone down and began to walk over to her wardrobe to get some pjs. The second she stepped away from the bed, her phone beeped loudly at her,  _ seriously? What timing, it's like he knows that I just got up. _ She read the text over and over, disapointed by his reply.

Gajeel: I don’t care

Whenever

Levy: Well that’s not helpful, I need a time 

Gajeel: I don’t care what you do

Do what you want, makes no difference to me

Levy: Ugh, you're so difficuit

Fine! What about tomorrow after school?

Gajeel: Sure whatever

"Ugh," She groaned, "I'm not looking forward to tomorrow."

~End of flash back~

Levy stood at the door to a house, the house had grey panel lined walls on both floors, that parted for the big windows. The white door stood slightly off centre, with a window either side, one closer to it than the other. Above the door was a small roof, held up by two strong metal pillars that looked as if the erupted from the ground. She took a deep breath, lifted her small, thin fist, and knocked on the door. 

It opened to reveal a tall man, he very much resembled Gajeel except he had shorter, straight hair and was dressed in a suit. He also lacked many of the piercings that his look alike had, the one he had was a single silver stud under his lip. He looked slightly confused, then smiled  _ if this is his dad, they sure are different, this one smiles.  _ "Hello," He began gently, his voice was also similar to the grumpy teenager's, but it was less husky and more kind. "Can I help you?" Levy looked at him, for a second she lost her words in her thought but quickly regained them. "Hi, I'm Gajeel's tutor," She said, trying to sound confident. "Oh, then come in," The man smiled and moved out the way, gesturing for her to come in. Levy stepped through the door way, the man closed the door behind her, "Gajeel!" He called up the stairs, which were opposite to the front door, he then turned to the small, bluenette girl. "Metalicana Redfox, pleasure to meet you," He held out his hand to her, she shook it and spoke, "Levy McGarden." A door opened, and they heard a grunt from the top of the stairs, the bluenette looked up to see Gajeel, half out of his door holding on to the doorframe. She noticed that he looked sort of angry,  _ did I do something wrong?  _ "Just introducing myself, she's all yours," His stare deepened as he looked directly at his father. 

Levy scrambled up the stairs, the man's words replaying in her head,  _ 'She's all yours?' What's that supposed to mean?  _ The man in the door way moved to allow her in, she walked in and looked around. The door closed. The walls were painted black and the carpet was dark grey. Against the wall that the door was on there was a double bed, it was in the far corner of the room. At the foot of the bed there was a white door, after the door there was a set of metal draws. In the other vertex of the room there was a black wood and metal corner unit desk, on it there was a two-monitor computer setup, above that were two triangular shelves fit into the point where the walls met. Next to the desk there was a two ft speaker, part of a three-speaker setup. One of the other speakers was on the metal draws. Above part of the desk, on the wall adjacent to the door, there was a big window with blood red curtains. 

"Not as messy as I thought," Levy stated, thinking out loud. The raven-haired man walked over to the desk and sat on the chair, there would have normally only been one but on this occasion, there were two, one a padded, black desk chair and the other a smaller blue desk chair. The baby blue of the small chair really stuck out like a sore thumb in the mostly black room. "I'm not a slob, you know," he stated as he picked up a pencil off his desk, "Well, most of the boy's rooms I've been in were messy so." She said casually, Gajeel raised an eyebrow, "How many boy's rooms have you been in?" She stopped looking around to look at him, he was smirking, "Is my little Shrimp a slut?" He asked tauntingly, he then laughed his signature 'gihee' laugh. She was very shocked, slightly angry and partially embarrassed by his mocking words, "N-no, do I look like someone who is like that?!" He thought about it and crossed his arms, "Nah, sluts are usually taller and bustier, like your friend 'Lulu'." She was insulted and shocked by his statement,  _ Lucy isn't a slut and I'm not that short,  _ she stood there looking hurt for a few seconds before Gajeel intervened. "Keep your shit together, it was a joke," She looked at him angrily, "Sit down so we can get this over with." He patted the chair next to him, she sat and peered at the sheets of paper in front of him, he quickly moved them before she could see what they were.  _ This is strange, his actions seem kind; holding the door for me and offering me a seat. But his words are so mean, he mocks me and taunts me, why?  _ She stared down at her lap, thinking, trying to work out what kind of person he is, "You okay, Shrimp? You look like someone covered up their face and ya can't figure out where they went." She looked at him, "Are you implying that I'm a baby?" He smirked, "Pretty much, surprised? Did ya think I was some kinda dunce?"  __ __

"No, but I was told that you are lazy and don't care about your lessons," The bluenette stated dryly. "I do care about my lessons," He spoke, an unreadable expression on his face. "Oh yeah? Which?" Levy challenged, "I care very much about the lessons that I can sleep in without being disturbed." He smirked, and she rolled her eyes, "Whatever, let's just get on with this, is they anything you need help with?" He grabbed one of the papers off one of his shelves, "Nah, so just do want you want, I guess." He said as he walked over to his draws, she looked at the sheet that he had pulled out, "You're doing Chemistry homework?" She heard metal clashing and scrunching from behind her, she turned around to see him standing shirtless in different trousers, she saw that he noticed her and quickly turned around, blush on her face.  _ Why is he attractive? What am I thinking? " _ You're changing?!" He was confused, "Yer, so?" He put on a black wife beater, "But, I'm here." He smirked at what she said as he sat back down, a metal box in hand, "Do you like what you see?" She blushed more, "N-no, why would I?!" She didn’t look at him while she spoke, she could let him she her blush. "Gihee".

He opened the box and took out a thick black pen, "Ya wanna see how I do homework?" The raven-haired man asked, Levy was confused and looked up, intrigued. The cap was taken off the pen, it had a chiselled tip, like a highlighter but as black as night, he took the pen to the paper and began to write. When he took the pen from the paper, Levy looked at it disappointedly, then read out the giant black words that were scribble messily onto it. "'No one gives a *** about chemistry', really?" The bluenette asked sarcastically, giving him a 'why' look. "You won't even swear, what a good little shrimp you are," He said, mocking her tone. "Chemistry... Whatta joke!" He tsked and smiled to himself, it was strange, it was the first time his smile was an actual smile rather than a smirk, it was nice. "I like chemistry..." She pouted, he raised an eyebrow, "Nerd," He mumbled, loud enough that she could hear but not loud enough to be held accountable, not that he'd apologize anyway.

***

"Could you pass me the ruler?" Levy asked, she waited a few seconds before turning to him, he had earphones on. She tapped his arm, the man turned towards her, his head in his hand, "RULER." The bluenette mouthed as pronounced as possible. He looked at her questioningly, then took out one of his earbuds, "Could you pass me the frickin' ruler already?!" Frustration clear in her voice even though she was trying to ask a nicely as she could. For the third time. "That’s not very nice, is it short-stuff?" He teased, noticing that she was slightly angry, he picked up the black metal ruler. "Just give me the ruler," She tried to grab it from him, he pulled his arm back, "I'm not givin' it to ya now!" He said, trying to look serious,  _ he's enjoying this... " _ Just give it!" She lung to reach it, she was inches away, leaning over him. She took a small step towards him, her foot was caught on one of the octopus-like legs of the chair. 

Consequently, she fell forward, just before her unruly blue head hit his shoulder, he caught her wrist and waist, he slowly pushed her up. She lifted her head; their faces were inches apart. It took her a couple of seconds to register what was happening, when she did her face was filled with crimson. As she looked into his mesmerising blood red eyes, she could've sworn she saw a slight pink on his cheeks. "Watch where you step Sh-" He was cut off by the door opening, followed by a giggle. "Am I interrupting?" Asked a small girl with sapphire hair, holding back giggles. Gajeel looked towards her, angry on his face, "Have you ever heard of knockin'?!" He exasperated, angry with a trace of embarrassment, he quickly let go of Levy. She simply smiled widely in response, Levy was turning even redder. He stood up, "Dinner's ready, by the way!" She chirped as she left the doorway, "Dad, you were right, they were being all touchy!" She yelled as she ran down the stairs, he stepped forward and slammed the door shut, the house shook slightly. The raven-haired man sighed. "I'm so sorry!" The bluenette squeaked.

***

The dining room was to the right of the front door, the entry way was a metal door frame along a bright white wall. It had a beautiful pattern of swirls carved into it and a metal wing on either side at the top; the swirls near the bottom formed into two dragons, one on either part. Coming from the dragons, the swirls formed into flames, the flames continued climbing up the door way until they dispersed into graceful pattern. 

Through the exquisite craftmanship of the door way, there was a square room, the walls the same bright white as the wall before but with a coal skirting board, matching the black abyss of the floor. In the centre of the room was a rectangular table, adorned in a pale blue table cloth, that had graceful swirls, similar to the door way, embroidered onto the corners. At the table, there were six oak chairs, grand with padded seats and arm rests, the table heads were different, more like thrones than chairs. A large sky blue and white rug slept under the table. 

Along the wall that shared a door, there was a large four panel window with thin metal bars that created diamonds decorating it. A metal bar was atop the window, at either end there was a hand carved metal ender, similar to the door frame in style, and handing from it there were thick midnight curtains. Beneath the window there was a pearl window sill, with a vase positioned carefully in the middle. The vase was a wide and round at the bottom and tapered into a thin neck towards the top; inside the were light indigo bluebells interspersed with pure white flowers of the same kind. 

Levy followed the raven-haired man into the room; as she entered, she noticed a table full of food, the delicious combination of smells hit her. She noticed that the girl with Lapis hair was sitting in one of the chairs, a bright smile printed on her face, she then looked over to Levy and smiled more. "You're Levy, right?" She asked, she patted the seat next to her, Levy sat down. "I'm Wendy, Gajeel sister," She stated happily. The raven-haired boy walked back into the room. Admittedly, neither of them realized that he had gone out of the room, but frankly, neither of them cared. The bluenettes watched as he sat in the chair opposite Levy, "What?" He asked grumpily, the bluenette opposite him didn’t realize that she had been staring, the events of earlier replayed in her head, she blushed at her thoughts. Wendy giggled giving her brother the 'hmm...?' Look, the blushing bluenette quickly looked down, blushing even more after she saw the younger girls face. Gajeel rolled his eyes and placing his chin on his hand.

A woman walked into the room, she had white greying hair and relaxed walnut eyes, there was a slight, content smile on her pale, and beginning to become wrinkled, face. Her silver straight silver hair ended a few inches below her neck and sat on her chest. She had a slim body that was dressed in light blue long sleeved shirt and pearl skirt that stopped just after her knees. In her hand she held a glass cooling dish in a tea towel, she placed it down on the table, "Be careful, it's quite hot." Her voice was kind and caring. She walked over to one end of the table and sat down on the throne-like chair, soon after the tall man from before, Metalicana, walked in and sat down at the other end of the table. Metalinana began to serve everyone, everyone except Gajeel, who completely ignored his dad and began taking food for himself. "Potato, Levy?" He asked, "A little, please." She replied, trying to make a good first impression, she didn’t know why though, it's not like she need to impress them, it's not like they're dating or anything.  _ Why am I thinking like this?  _ "You're so polite," The man commented, while placing some boiled potatoes onto her plate with a large spoon. They all began eating, when suddenly, the woman placed her cutlary down, sighing as if she'd forgoten something; "Oh, how rude of me!" She began, her children looked at her, husband and Levy looked to her, "Sorry, dear. I didn’t introduce myself," She said kindly looking at Levy with a soft smile, "Mrs Redfox, call me Grandeeney." The bluenette smiled at her and spoke, "Levy, I'm Gajeel's tutor." Wendy giggled, she then looked at her brother with a smirk on her face, he raised an eyebrow, "They were all touchy though!" She giggled, Levy blushed and tried to speak but sadly, no words came out. "What..?" Gajeel asked, he stared at his sister, who just kept giggling, "Really?" His dad asked a small smirk now appearing on his face too, "No, what wouldya think that for?" He retaliated, trying not to seem embarrassed or off so they wouldn't suspect anything; unfortunately for him, his face apparently didn't get the memo. "Gaji, you're blushing!" Wendy sang, he looked at her, straight faced, "I don’t blush," He stated blankly. "Sure you do!" His dad said placing a piece of food into his mouth. It was like they had teamed up against him to take him down. They continued to argue, Levy looked at her food, listening in and blushing at some of the things they were saying, "Pay no mind to them." Grandeeney began, the bluenette looked to her, "Tell me about you." She smiled sweetly and listen intently. "Sure," Levy began happily. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah, seriously, you must live for the cringe or just have like... eyes of steel or something. Fun story about this chapter, I couldn't think of a title for it so I narrowed it down to 3 and sent them to all of my friends on whatsapp to vote on which the liked best and.. accidently sent the msg to my dad too... God, I still cringe thinking about it... learn from me, always, ALWAYS double check who your have selected when sending a group msg.


	6. Hidden talents

Chatter filled the classroom as people pilled in to begin an excruciating day of brain labour. A black-haired boy walked into the class, a scowl on his face and a book in his hand; he walked over to a desk near the window, slammed his hand and book on to the table then stared at its inhabitant. A man with muscular arms crossed over his chest, which was leaned back in his chair, and equally annoyed scowl glared back at the intruder. "Whaddaya want, ice boy?" The man in the desk asked, leaning farther in his chair, "Have you seen Juvia?" Ice boy, better known as Gray asked, is scowl softening slightly as he talked. "Nah, why?" Gray sighed and held up the book in his hand, "You found her creeper book?" The man smirked, he knew what was in that book and he knew it was something that would make people, especially Gray, uncomfortable to say the least. "Yes, unfortunately," He shivered, thinking about the stuff that was in that book made his brain hurt,  _ why would someone be so creepy? And why about me? Don’t I have enough problems already?  _ He felt conflicted, obviously this girl, who he wished he could remember more about, had strong feelings for him, but she was so creepy and clearly not very confident because she couldn’t voice any of her feelings. From what he could remember, they had met before; at the start of high school, about a month or so after he had begun his first year, she moved to FTH along with Gajeel after Phantom Lord was shut down by the city council, they had introductions but that was it. He remembered when they first met, they talked alittle, but after that, not much. 

"So, you read it?" The man looked at the book, Gray nodded and opened the book to the first page, he looked at the drawing, "I didn’t know you where such a talented artist,  _ Gaji _ " He mocked as he looked over the lined pages. "Shuddup," Gajeel grumbled as he looked away. Gray snickered as he went to his seat. 

"Morning, Gajeel!" A voice chirped as she sat in the seat in front of him, her friend sitting next to her, "Mornin', Shrimp." She smiled and turned to her friend, "You shouldn’t rock on your chair, you know," The blonde said to him, "Tsk." Was all he said before looking out the window once more. "Good morning, Erza," Lucy said, looking up to the red head and smiling, "Good morning, Lucy. How are you?" The beautiful woman asked. "I'm good," Erza smiled then walked past her to the muscular man, "You shouldn’t rock on your chair." He looked towards her, "Whattaya gonna do? Gimme a detention?" He asked sarcastically, "No, a warning." She spoke. He was about to talk but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he then felt himself being pushed back slightly, he then lost his balance and chair hit the ground with a thud. "Ow.." He groaned looking at the ceiling, "You shouldn’t rock on your chair," She said as he walked away, snickers and giggles were heard around the class room. 

"Hey, Luce!" A voice called as he waved to his friend, Lucy smiled, "Hey, Natsu." He walked past her to the man on the floor, "Why ya on the floor?" He asked raising an eyebrow as he looked at Gajeel, who was frowning angrily. He didn’t answer. "He disobeyed Erza," Lucy said, smirking. "Idiot," Natsu said looking down to him, "What did ya call me?" The man asked angrily, getting up and glaring at Natsu, "Idiot, you do disobey a monster." He said glaring back at the man. "What was that?" Erza suddenly appeared and asked, an almost visible aura around her. "Nothing!" He squeaked, going to his seat, Gajeel mumbled something under his breathe before sitting down.

Erza walked to the front of the class, taking her position next to Mr Conbolt. "Everyone take your seats," She called, everyone sat down, and the room was quiet. "As you all know," She began, "Class 3b is having a singing and music contest to help raise money for charity." As she spoke some people nodded and some looked around unknowingly, "We are? New news to me." A certain salmon-haired boy spoke from his seat in the class, "Shut up Natsu, I was talking!" The women shouted, a faint 'sorry Erza' was heard, but mostly ignored. "You'll have to teach me that trick sometime, Erza, I can never get him to shut his trap," Mr Conbolt stated, a little louder than intended.

"Anyway; as I was saying, anyone who is interested in competing in this event should come to Music 3 at lunch today. That is all." As she finished the announcement, the bell rang, and everyone started piling out of the class room. Gray walked up to Mr Conbolt as he began to leave, "Sir, do you know if Juvia is in today?" He asked as he too left. The man looked back at him, "You know, I honestly don’t know." He started to walk away, the black-haired man heard him mumble something on the lines of 'she's your girlfriend, you should know' as he left, Gray simply rolled his eyes and walked to his first lesson.

***

"Okay class, that's it for today's lesson. Remember that the homework is due in tomorrow, pages 69-71; class di-" A voice spoke from the class, interrupted by the shrill ringing of the almost deafening sound that so many ears longed to hear. "Oh! Looks like the bell beat me to it, have a good day everyone," The same voice spoke kindly. The room was then filled, or emptied, with the sound of chatter as students left into the corridors. 

A black-haired boy followed suit and exited the classroom, he passed through the busy locker-lined halls to his locker, just next to the girl's bathroom.  _ I think my locker is in the worst place possible this year, I look like such a perv,  _ he sighed as he thought. He walked up to the metal box, unlocked it then opened the door, he looked at the book and hat that he had placed there earlier;  _ this makes me look like even more of a perv, I have a girl's diary in my locker.  _ He picked up the book and looked at it, grabbing the other things he need for his next lesson. He checked his watch,  _ 10 more minutes of break, that’s enough time, right?  _ He put the items into his bag, flung it over his shoulder, and closed his locker. He turned around and was greeted with a face full of cool pink hair, his eyed widened as he stopped just before his face was slammed into it. "Meredy?" He questioned, she looked up to meet his dark eyes, "That's me." She stated with a smile, her smile slowly mutated into a sly smile when she remembered why she was here, "Thinking about your girlfriend?" She asked maintaining her expression. "What girlfriend?" He looked at her confusedly, her smile deepened, "You know, the one whose diary you have." The girl spoke in a matter-of-fact tone while pulling a 'duh' face, he was shocked to say the least.  _ She's always meddling in other people's business, I guess she picked up that trait from Ultear.  _ "Juvia?" He conformed, her face completely changed into surprise, but she quickly regained her smirk, "You're dating Juiva?" She inquisited, he shook his head, "No, it's just th-" He was cut off by her speaking. "But you said you were," His cheeks flushed slightly uncontrollably, "You know that’s not what I meant." He stated, trying to compose himself again, "You're blushing;" She taunted. "Whatever, you two are friends, aren't you?" Gray began, the girl nodded, "Do you know where she is?" She thought for a second, "Yeah, I think so," She started. "Why do you want to know?" The girl asked in a sly tone, "I need to return something," He spoke honestly, she smirked. "Sure~. She should be in the café, she usually buys her lunch at break so she should be there," She stated. "Thanks, Meredy," He turned around and quickly walked off, "Good luck Romeo~" She teased. Gray rolled his eyes, "Shut up, Meredy," He called as he continued to walk on. 

***

"Please Lu!" A small bluenette girl begged, she looked at her blonde friend with pleading eyes, her friend looked back at her. "No, Levy. I can't, I just started here, and I don’t want to make a fool of myself," The blonde spoke, she was sitting at a table next to a certain salmon-haired boy. The early afternoon sun burning up her back as the slight breeze blew through her golden locks. She picked up her fork and took a bite of her food, today on the menu was chilli, as soon as she felt the food in her mouth she felt it begin to burn up. "You won't make a fool of yourself, you should do it; If you don’t, it will just be a waste of an opportunity. Plus, you have a really nice voice." Levy tried to convince her, the blonde quickly swallowed the food in her mouth, which now burned and stung like hell. She let out a pant as she tried to reach for her water, it fell over and rolled of the table. Just as she was about to grab it she heard the boy next to her speak, "Here." He held his drink up to her face, she took the straw between her fingers and quickly took it in her mouth and gulped down the drink to sooth her painful mouth and throat. The vanilla milkshake in the paper cup was the perfect relief. The boy held the cup as she drank, she let the straw fall out of her mouth then sighed. Natsu then moved the straw back towards himself and took a short sip from it before placing it down on the table next to his plate.  _ It's kinda like we just kissed,  _ she thought as she watched him, he smiled at her warmly, she couldn’t help the rosy glow that crept onto her face. Lucy shook her head to banish these thoughts from her brain, luckily it worked, she then re-directed her attention to the blue-haired girl standing opposite her. "No, I can't," she looked briefly towards Natsu for reassurance, she simply smiled. He then began to speak, "I think you should, Luce." He used a persuasive tone in his voice, "Eh?!" The blonde exclaimed, "You're supposed to agree with me, Natsu," She pouted, looking at the table below her. The bluenette and the salmon-haired boy exchanged looks, they both knew that this was a good opportunity and that if Lucy didn't take part she'd regret it later, but neither of them had the words to convince her. Natsu's eyes widened slightly,  _ I have an idea... _ He thought,  _ "That’s new for you,"  _ The little Gray in his brain said with a smug grin on his face,  _ shut up Gray!  _ "Jeez, Luce. Why you gotta be so stubborn?" He asked rubbing his temples, "Here, I'll cut ya a deal." Lucy looked up at him, intrigued by his proposition, "I will if you will," He stated, laying out the terms simply and concisely. She thought for a second before turning to the boy smiling, she held out her hand, he took it and shook it firmly. "You have a deal, my good friend," She spoke doing her best serious 'business voice', "Nice doing business with you," He grinned, letting go of her hand, she giggled then looked to Levy. The bluenette sighed.

Levy looked passed the couple sitting opposite her and saw a dark-haired boy walking towards them, a woman in toe. The bluenette watched as she nervously followed, a gentle blush permanently staining her pale cheeks. "Hey guys!" The boy called as he reached the trio, he waved his hand in the air. "It's him, isn't it?" Natsu said, grimacing, "It's nice to see you too, coal for brains." He spoke sarcastically, "Gray~sama, why did you bring me here?" The woman with him said, drawing everyone's attention towards her, "Oh yeah! Guys, this is Juvia. She's in our homeroom and a new friend of mine," She smiled awkwardly as he introduced her, Natsu's eyes suddenly lit up, "I know you!" Juvia looked at the salmon-haired boy in confusion, her head quirked slightly, "You do...?" Gray asked, The other boy nodded his head quickly, "Yeah! You're the girl who used to hang around Metalmouth before he became all moody and emo. Y'know, when he first transferred her a year ago," He finished. Gray looked surprised, "Wow, didn't think you paid that much attention." He stated coldly, "You wanna fight?!" The salmon-haired boy challenged, Gray's face went blank, Juvia looked confused, Levy felt like face palming while Lucy, even though she only been around him for almost a week, had gotten used to his stupidity and just looked a little dead inside. "Normally I would, and beat you, but if you couldn't tell I was half way through speaking," He began, Natsu pouted, having his own personal pity party, the blonde smiled at him as if to say 'jeez, it's not the end of the world, get over it,' it's strange how a smile can have so many mixed messages. "Anyway, Juvia used to go to Phantom Lord, like Gajeel, and transferred here a year ago when it closed down." 

"So," Levy began, finally adding to the conversation, "If I may ask, how did you guys meet. Was it just because we're in the same class?" She asked, "You say that like we're a couple or something," Gray mumbled, a slight blush on his skin, Juvia's eyes lit up at the world 'couple'. The blue-haired woman suddenly attached herself to Gray, her arms tightly gripping one of his, her large eyes lovingly peering up to him. "We could be if you want, Gray~sama!" She exclaimed, a smile beaming on her face. "Gah! Juiva, what are you doing?!" He yelled, shocked. He stiffened when she pushed herself closer to him, he could feel... things pressed against his arm, yeah... things. "I'm hugging you, silly," She said calmly closing her eyes and leaning her head on his shoulder. "Could you get off, please?" The dark-haired boy said, trying to maintain a steady voice,  _ why do i feel like a 13-year-old again, I have to concentrate to stop my voice from breaking.  _ The woman reluctantly let go, looking down awkwardly, "Sorry Gray~sama." She apologised. He siged, "It's fine, just don't do that so suddenly," Her ears perked up and a smiled crept onto her face at hearing these words and she bite back the urge to hug him again.

~flash back~

The cafeteria, the one place in school where school doesn’t matter, was roaring with chatter, the lines long and the tables packed. Although, most people there weren't eating, it was only break after all, but instead they were regrouping; sharing stories of past lessons and enjoying each other's company, or just fighting, there was a lot of just fighting. Gray entered through the heavy green metal doors, he looked around, taking in faces, looking for that particular face that he needed to see. As he moved his eyes around the crowded room, he saw a flash of cerulean hair sway past him, "Excuse me," A sweet voice said, the boy then remembered that he was standing in front of the door, not the best place to plant yourself. He looked down slightly to meet her eyes, gorgeous midnight blue orbs. Deep enough to hold river with a beautiful crashing waterfall, and just as is the water, loving and life giving yet cold and malevolent, ready to turn the tides. For a split second he got lost in the winding river the held. She broke the momentary eye contact with a gentle smile set on her pale face, and walked past, through the door. 

"Juvia?" He asked after walking through the door behind her, the woman turned her head to face him, a small blush now shinning on her cheeks and her eyes twinkling with anticipation. _This is it! This is the moment where Gray~sama_ _proposes his love to me! I'll wear a lovely white gown and he'll wear a navy-blue suit to compliment his handsome face! I'll walk down the isle an-,_ her thoughts where interrupted when she realised that he was trying to talk to her. Gray slipped his bag off his back into his hands, he unzipped it and pulled out a book with a brown leather cover and a dark blue hat with a fluffy rim and pretty, yellow flower. Her eyes widened, she instantly recognised the items and began to panic internally, she struggled keeping her cool but just manage to contain her embarrassment as she watched him rezip is bag and slip it back where it once was. The boy reached his hand out and passed her the book and hat he was holding, Juvia smiled awkwardly, _out of all the people who could have found that book, why did he have to find it? I pray he didn't read it._ "There's some really creepy shit in there you know. Tell me, how did you know that my favourite cereal is frosted flakes?" He asked with a dry tone. _Crap._ "Just a hunch, I guess," She tried to smile, it was quite hard considering the fact that she was currently dying inside. _Is this his way of rejecting me?_ She hugged the book in her arms close to her chest and avoided eye contact, at this point she just wanted to disappear into the nothingness. He began to talk in a serious voice, "I," He looked at the ground, "I don’t know why you did this-." Gray looked up at her, was staring at him, tears pricking in her eyes, threatening to fall, he stopped. _Why can't I talk? Just tell her it's creepy and to stop already!_ Their eyes met, "Would," _Say it!_ "Would you like to hang out sometime? As friends," _No, no, no! What are you say?!_ Her eyes light up and a smile bloomed on her face, "R-really?" Juvia was extremely happy, "Yeah, I guess..." He sighed, _I'm so screwed._ "Meet here at lunch?" Her face was full of hope and joy, he couldn't turn her down for some reason. "Sure."

~Flashback end~ 

"Are you gonna answer the question, princess, or are you waiting for someone else to do it for you?" Natsu asked, breaking the awkward tension that had fallen over the group, Gray glared at him. After thinking over the events that brought him here standing next to the woman he was supposed to hate, being interrogated by an idiot, his girl and girl who looks like she should still be in grade school, he decided to go with the easiest option. "It's a long question," He stated dryly, the salmon-haired boy crossed his arms over his chest, a smirk forming on his tanned face, "We've got time." Lucy and Levy glanced at each other with confused expressions, "Actually, we don-," The blonde was interrupted by Natsu, he held a finger up and she stopped talking. Now irritated by his arrogant behaviour, she pressed her lips together and tapped her foot. "I'll play your game then, flamebrain, is that's what you want," Gray answered,  _ I'm surrounded by arrogant idiots,  _ Lucy thought. "Hey Natsu, could we just skip this game and go to Music 3? Luch is nearly over." The bluenette pleaded. 

"Are you guys doing that competition thing?" Juvia asked, the other girls turned to her, Levy smiled as Lucy began to speak, "Yeah, are you?" The cerulean-haired woman smiled slightly, "I would like to, but I don't think I'd do well." The blonde stood from her seat, taking Juvia's hands, "I think you should, take every chance you get, you know?" The small bluenette's face when blank, "That's rich comin' from you, Luce," Natsu stated. "Yeah, the only way to get you to sing was for Natsu to agree to, too," Levy said, Gray suddenly broke into hysterical laughter, "What?" The other boy asked sternly, Gray tried to speak, but was cut off by another bout of laughter; he finally managed to stop laughing and talk, there were tears in his eyes and people staring, but neither of them cared, the girls on the other hand were trying to hide themselves and draw less attention to the group. Needless to say, it wasn't working. "You're gonna sing?" The dark-haired boy was still smiling as he spoke, "Yes" Natsu stated with full honesty and sincerity. 

***

"We're finally here!" Lucy sighed as she walked through the door of 'Music 3', she was followed closely by a small bluenette and a certain salmon-haired boy. "Hello Lucy," A calm voice spoke, the blonde looked around the room, looking for the origin of then voice. Her eyes glazed over the objects in the room; from the door way, you could see all of the big room. The country pine floor cracked slightly as people walked across it, and the pale-yellow poster lined walls reach all the way to the high slanted ceiling. In the middle of the ceiling, there was a large square sky-light that illuminated the room with the beautiful glow of natural lighting. Basking in this light, there were a few tables and chairs, but the room was mostly open floor and stage. Tucked away in one of the corners of the room, there was a stack of stools next to a white door, probably a storage cupboard of some kind. On the wall perpendicular to this, also opposite the entry way, a windowed door stood, on the glass was written the words 'Practice Rooms'. Standing near this door at a table was none other than Class President scarlet-haired beauty Erza next to her azure haired friend, who was currently fixing a speaker and microphone set up. "Hey Erza, are you competing?" The blonde asked while making her way over to the table, "No, I'm organising." She corrected, she looked over to the man who was fiddling with the parts from the mic, he looked up and they shared a smile, "And he's helping set up." Lucy nodded her head, she turned her head slightly to see a flash of pink behind her, "I didn't know ya were such a tech nerd, Jellal," He said looking at the man. Jellal then lifted his head from what he was doing, "Did you say something, Natsu?" He asked, now broken from his concentration, the two girls giggled and Natsu sighed and walked away. 

"Okay everyone, could I have your attention please," A woman with pearl hair and porcelain skin was standing at the base of the mini stage, everyone directed their attention towards her, she smiled warmly. "Welcome everyone, right now I'm going to go through the rules and explain everything about this performance," She began. "First of all, I'd just like to thank everyone here for coming, as you know this is a performance for charity, so tickets for the show will be on sale for anyone who wants to buy them, spread the word. As far as prizes and winners go, the prizes will stay a secret until the winners are decide, and yes, I said winners; there will be more than one. That brings me onto the rules for competing. To enter, you need to have one duet and one solo, the duet must have two people, obviously, but they don't both have to sing, one could play an instrument instead. Coming back to the winners, there will be a winner for best voice, best duet and best musician. Aaannd, I think that’s everything, this room and the practice rooms will be available at lunch and after school. Good luck!" Lucy looked over at Natsu, who was playing with a guitar, playing random chords and humming.  _ A duet, huh. _

***

The bell shrieked, signalling the end of the day, Levy rushed out of her class down the busying halls to Music 3. She was planning in getting in a quick brainstorming session before she when home for the day, and a practise room would be the best place to do it, high speed internet connection and sound proof walls, perfect for secret singing. She hurried into the room and walked across it to the second door, she pushed the handle down and opened it quietly. She stepped towards the room furthest from the door, as she neared it she heard some gentle strumming of what sounded like an electric guitar.

As she walked closer to the noise, she noticed that the door to the room it was coming from was open slightly. Her curiosity got the best of her and she couldn't help taking a small peak. The gentle strumming picked up into a solo,  _ whoever is playing this has some skills,  _ she thought as she listened. The bluenette peered through the gap in between the door and the door frame, what she saw shocked her. A man with a waist length mane of unruly raven hair, which had been tied back into a pony tail, was sitting on a stool with an electric guitar in hand and peddles by his feet. His eyes were closed and his face was fully relaxed as he let his fingers roam over the strings, a pick in hand as he began to louden the tune. "Gajeel," She whispered as she listened, suddenly his eyes shot open and he dropped his pick, Levy gulped. She tried to sneak away quietly, but by the time she had turned around, the door behind her swung open, she could almost feel his angry stare. 

"Shrimp?" The man tried to sound less angry, she turned around to face him, "Firstly, it's Levy. And secondly, y-yes?" The bluenette asked nervously. "How long have you been her?" He asked seriously, she looked at him, he looked almost embarrassed. "Only like a minute, but what I heard was really good!" Levy tried to reassure him, he sighed,  _ thank God she only just got here. _ "Didn't your mum teach you that eavesdropping is rude?" He asked as he walked back into to the room, "Well you're the one who left the door open," She said in a 'duh' tone. He started to close the door on her, she tried to stop it, but the strength difference was too great. She opened the door, he sighed, "Didn't your mum teach you that shutting doors in people's faces is rude?" She exaggerated the word 'your' as she spoke, "Tsk." He ignored her and started to retune his guitar, "Gajeel?" She looked down at her hands,  _ I can't believe I'm asking this,  _ "Hm?" He responded. She took a deep breath, "Would you be my duet partner?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh, this is the point in the story where I decided I wanted it to have a plot... but had already written 5 chaps, so it's awkwardly shoved in there. Anyway, have a great day <3


	7. Swimming is fun

"Come on brats, get those legs pumping!" A tall, lean woman yelled. She had sky blue hair that hung down to just above her navy bikini bottom, that was lined with bright white detailing, and a face that was riddled with annoyance. Her dark blue eyes gazed down at the water below her, clipboard in hand, whistle round neck, she began to call out names of the students she was torturing, or teaching; it depends how you look at it really. 

"Lucy, what are you waiting for?" The blonde woman looked down at the salmon-haired boy in waist deep water beneath her, she hugged herself closely, concealing her chest and very revealing white bikini top, while she stared at the rippling water. "Is it cold?" Lucy asked shakily as she dipped her toe into the water, "You're being such a baby Luce. It's a pool, it's not gonna hurt ya!" Natsu exasperated, looking up at her. "Yeah, but what if I-," She began, but was interrupted by a very angry looking teacher, "Lucy! Get in the water, would you?! I'm trying to teach a lesson here!" The woman yelled from across the pool, the blonde mumbled something under her breath before sitting down to slide into the pool, "What was that?!" The woman, with dog-like hearing, angrily asked. "Sorry," Lucy said loud enough for her teacher to hear, "Sorry, who?" She looked down to her clipboard, then up again, disapproved by how many names there were on the list compared to around the pool. 

Said pool was outside, towered over by the school building, but with a good amount of sun light, due to where the sun was in the sky at this particular time. It was encased in a six- foot tall metal wire fence, not so much for protection, but more so to make it separate from the shedding trees and paths around it. One of the paths connected the metal wire fence's gate to entrance of the changing/shower rooms and the other cut through the grass to the equipment shed. Inside the fence there were three rows of staggered blue stairs, along the long side opposite the building.

"Sorry, Miss Aquarius." Lucy said as she entered the pool, shivering slightly at the sudden temperature change, even though it wasn’t that great. "Do some warm up routines with pinky 'til the rest of this class decides to show up," Miss Aquarius instructed looking at her clipboard again. The blonde looked at the boy next to her, he was sulking slightly, "Pinky..." His voice was almost a whisper as he spoke, staring at the water. 

Watching his childish actions, caused Lucy to let out a small giggle. While Natsu was feeling sorry for himself, she took some time to look him over; he was wearing fiery orange swimming-trunks, which had a black and yellow flame design creeping up one leg, that hung to just below his knees. The only other clothing he wore was his classic striped scarf, that he had tied around his head like a very thick bandana. "Oh, and Pinky!" The (still) angry woman called, Natsu looked over to her, still pouting, "Take that off your head, you can't swim with that on! Plus, you look retarded." She said the last part quieter but still loud enough for people close to her to hear and snicker because of. He grumbled something under his breathe before moving his hands up to his head to untie it. As he did this, Lucy watched his muscles in his arms and shoulders move, almost mesmerised by the way they relaxed and contracted gently while used different amounts of pressure to move his scarf-bandana. He got out of the water, using his right arm to push himself up, then his left leg to step onto the pool side, cradling his precious scarf in his other arm. The boy walked over to the benches, which were covered in towels, and placed it neatly nest to a red towel; presumably, his. He walked back quickly, jumped in the pool and caused a tidal wave-like splash, completely soaking Lucy, who hadn't taken her eyes of him for even a spilt-second. 

"Natsu!" She shrieked, "I'm all wet now!" She whined, he simply laughed at he, "What did you expect, Luce? You were watching me the whole time, you should've noticed. Plus, it's a pool, you're gonna get wet." The blonde blushed at the accusation, stepped towards him and started laying small punches against his muscular, and surprisingly hairless, chest. "Shut up! I know it's a pool, you don’t have to tell me!" He suddenly grabbed both her wrists, one in each of tanned hands, and held them either side of her chest, "I was only kidding!" He laughed with a smile, "You don't have to get all flustered." As he looked at her, Lucy suddenly became embarrassed, remembering what she was wearing and by how close to her he was standing but for some strange reason she didn't mind that much. 

A smirk appeared on her face as a mischievous idea popped into her head, Natsu looked at her his head tilted slightly, "You okay, Lucy?" He asked. The blonde simply hummed and nodded in response, she then pushed against him, catching him off guard. The boy fell backwards, startled by the sudden contact, but unfortunately for Lucy, pulled her down with him. She briskly wriggled her arms free and stood up, he popped his head out of the water, an unimpressed face. All his hair, which once stood in spikes, was now flat against his head and face, "Look who's all wet now," Lucy smirked, she then started laughing, "Your hair! You look so strange." She added. Natsu looked away, he then spit some pool water that he accidently almost swallowed back into the pool, like a very unimpressed water fountain. "Ew! Don’t do that, that’s disgusting!" She squeaked, he smirked and dipped back under water. Lucy was suddenly swept off of her feet, literally, and over the boy's shoulder. "H-hey! What are you doing?" She exasperated, instead of talking, he flung her into the water. She let out a high shriek before hitting the water. 

He started laughing loudly as she slowly came up to the surface of the water, "Not funny," She pouted, the boy continued to laugh as she stood up and started laughing too, but at the pieces of salmon hair which were still covering his face. "Hey! Would you brats stop messing around and warm up already?!" The duo tried not to laugh as her answered the now fuming teacher. The rest of the people in the class finished filing in from the changing rooms and into the pool.

***

"Okay! I want you to split into boy-girl pairs and stand in a lane in your pairs, but not in the water yet, understand?!"Miss Aquarius called out, she was preparing to do the last portion of today's lesson, races. The students did as she said, moving into different lanes, "First we are gonna do the boys, then the girls, then the fastest from both will race. So, boys, get your butts in the water and wait for my signal!" All the boys got into the water, most sensibly. Most. "Natsu, did you have to do that?" Lucy asked, rubbing her temples. She had just watched him canon ball into the water, a very different way of entering when compared to how all the sane people got in. "Good luck, Gray~sama!!" A voice cheered, the voice belonging to the cerulean haired woman wearing an indigo bikini with white spots and frills. A, rather embarrassed, Gray replied sheepishly, "Yeah thanks, dial it down a bit okay?" She smiled, putting her hand behind her back, and nodding. 

A few lanes away, a man with azure hair looked up to the woman crouched on the pool edge talking to him, dripping blood red hair clinging around her shoulders. "Have a good race, Jel- Kya!" The woman abruptly fell forwards into the water and into the arms of the man below, she held onto him for dear life, still shocked from the fall. "Erza, you okay?" The girl in the lane next to her asked, giggling slightly. "Here," She held out her slightly tanned hand to help her out, Erza stayed put. The girl offering help had long carob hair and was wearing a green and orange tiger-strip bikini. "Erza?" She asked, confused by her actions. Erza was horrified and extremely embarrassed by the situation she had literally fallen into. Her face blushed bright red. Luckily, not many people had noticed and surprisingly, Miss Aquarius hadn't either. She was too busy telling of the one person who had 'forgotten' to bring their trunks, to no one's alarm it was Gajeel. To be fair, swimming really wasn't his sport, he was much better at things which involved hitting something (or someone) very hard. He was a very muscular person, and not the type of muscles that help you swim, the type of muscles that make you heavy, and you can probably work out that being solid like iron and water don’t really go well together. 

"J-Jellal, c-could you um," She stuttered out. Jellal, who was now also blushing, looked down to see her bare back, and blushed more. The ends of her bumblebee colour bikini top floating either side of her body, and the man now understanding what she wanted him to do. "Could you, p-please," He didn't answer, fearing how squeaky his voice would be if he did. He instead took the ends of the top and tied them for her, making sure they were secure. When she felt his warm hands leave her back, she let out a relieved sigh before slow removing her arms from around his neck. "T-thank you," She whispered in his ear before slipping out of the water; he thought about answering but he still couldn’t guarantee how deep his voice would be, so he just nodded his head, then turned around, the heat slowly leaving his face.

"Okay boys, on your marks," Miss Aquarius called, averting everyone's attention back towards her and away from the affairs that just took place. "Ready, set," They got into position, ready to begin. "Go!" She yelled, the boys left the wall and swam for the end of the 25m pool. It was a 50m front crawl race, so a fast turn was needed once reaching the other end of the pool. Once the race ended, Gray emerged victorious, beating Natsu by half a second; he was not happy. As soon as the boy stepped out of the water, he was attacked a very happy Juvia's bear hug. His breath caught in his throat as her skin made contact with his, "I knew you could do it, Gray~sama!" She cooed excitedly. He didn’t answer, he tried to wriggle his arms free, but her grip was like vice, holding him in place with no chance of escaping. She looked up at him, a large grin on her face, "Now I have to go and win my race to prove that I am worthy of you!" She declared, a little too loud in Gray's opinion, "Sure..." Was all he said.

"Girls!" The woman called, "You're up." The girls got into the water and the race commenced. At the start of the race, Erza took the lead, followed closely by a head of tawny hair. They continued most of the race head-to-head, until about 10m away from the end, Juvia stole the race from both of them. She finished the race, leaving both girls in shock and impressing the no longer as angry Miss Aquarius. The woman stood in the water, looking up at Gray, who she now got to face. "You see, Gray~sama?" She began smiling, "I told you I would win for you." The boy looked down to her, he tried to focus on her face, but from where he was standing he had a perfect view of her cleavage, so it was kinda hard to resist; she didn't really seem to mind. _Ultear~san was right! This bathing suit was definitely a good choice,_ she said to herself as she thought back to her previous conversation with her crushes stepsister. 

Everyone got out of the water, leaving only Juvia and her Gray~sama. They got ready to begin, getting into comfortable starting positions, "I would much rather be swimming with you than against you, Gray~sama, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to give you the race." She spoke as the waited for the signal to be made, "I'll warn you, I'm not gonna go easy on you, so don't hold back." He said with a confident smile, "Don't worry, I'll give it everything I have." And just as she finished talking, the signal went, and Miss yelled 'go' to make sure they knew. The final race had begun.

As the swam, Gajeel, who was leaning against the fence behind everyone watching the races, chuckled under his breath, catching Natsu and Lucy's attention. "What?" The salmon-haired boy asked, looking back, "Poor popsicle," He grunted. Lucy looked to him, "Why?" The man chuckled again, "She swims like a fish, she's been doin' competitions and trials since she knew how to." He explained, "Best of the best when it comes to aquatics." The blonde nodded slightly in understanding, Natsu on the other hand pulled a confused face, "Aquatics?" He asked, Gajeel sighed, "Get a brain would ya, Salamander." The man walked off to the other end of the fence, towards the gate. "I have a brain!" He shouted angrily, Gajeel 'tsked' before retaliating, "Keep thinking that. Oh wait, ya needa brain to think, so maybe just stand quietly." Lucy giggled and the boys anger, "Stupid metalmouth," He grumbled before sulking.

Gray was in the lead, _I'm so gonna win this..._

***

 _"_ I can't believe I lost," Gray flabbergasted, he was now in the changing rooms sitting on the bench, his heed lowered and his arms dangling by his sides. "We get it! You lost to a girl. Can you stop complaining and put some clothes on already?" The boy looked down to see his black boxers, "Damn it! When did that happen?" He exclaimed. Natsu looked at him, unamused by his friend's behaviour, "Like a minute after you put them on." Gray began to get dressed, sit sulking over his loss.

***

"Thanks for finally showing up," A voice spoke, the voice belonging to a tall, muscular, manly man with bright white hair. "Oh, I'm sorry that I had swim practice and didn't want to do this project with wet hair," A woman with tawny hair, a revealing uniform and silver-rimmed glasses snarled back. "Just sit down so we can get on with this already," The man, Elfman, said. Shortly after, the woman sat down opposite him. They were sat at a wooden table, which was two desks put together, with four padded bright blue chairs around it; this table was like the many others around it. 

The walls were covered all the way to the ceiling with books, fiction, non-fiction, even instruction manuals for different computer and phone models. The floor which the tables were upon was lined with a ruff, porpoise carpet that was slightly peeling in some of the corners but would probably never be replaced because no one really seemed to care about it. The library was a busy place at lunch; well, if having five people constitutes as busy, then the library was extremely busy today because instead of the regular five loners, nerds and promiscuous couples that would hang about there to avoid the outside world, there was a grand total of seven people. Even Miss Strauss, the librarian, was surprised with the amount of people there, she was even more surprised to see that one of them was her own brother, a boy who has the reading age of a thirteen-year-old.

"So, are you going to continue wasting my time or are we actually going to do some work?!" Evergreen exclaim, probably a bit louder than she should have done, considering the circumstances. "Oh, I'm sooo sorry for wasting your 'precious time'" The man began sarcastically, "But maybe if you stopped shouting at me we would do something!" She narrowed her eyes at him before looking away, "I don't appreciate your tone," As she said this, she crossed her arms under her bust, pushing her breasts up and slightly revealing her green bra. "What the hell does that mean?!" Elfman raised an eyebrow as he yelled, _this woman! She keeps sending me such mixed messages..._ "Anyway, which natural disaster should we focus this project on?" She asked, trying her best to co-operate. "Hmm... I think earthquakes, 'cause they're manly!" He yelled, also forgetting the situation they were in, "What was that?!" Ever asked in irritation, her veins looking as if they were about to bulge out of her head; she lunged over the table, fan in hand, and gave him a swift whack around the head. "If I," Whack. "Hear you," Whack. "Say 'manly'," Whack. "One," Whack. "More," Whack. "Time," Whack. "I will personally arrange your funeral!" She screeched, definitely too loud for the library.

"What's this about funerals?" A sweet voice asked kindly, too kindly, it was scary. "U-um, hi Mira..." Elfman squeaked, Ever quickly turned around towards the woman, she had a wide smile on her face. "Hello, M-miss Strauss..." The woman giggled slightly before closing this distance between her and her brother, "So Elfman, would you like to explain to me why you're making such noise in my library?" Although her voice was calm, the last part of her sentence held a certain bitterness to it. The arguing couple remained silent, "Hurry, I don't want to have to raise my voice!" She half yelled, then giggled. "We were just-" The man begun, he was soon interrupted, "Just what? Causing a distraction? Being a public nuisance? Go on, you pick!" Nothing. "Oh, I guess you want me to pick for you! See, in my opinion, you were being both! And guess what else?!" Still nothing. "You do not be either of those things in my library!" She yelled furiously, sorta smiling but mostly baring a scowl that could bore into your soul. "So, let's talk punishments, I think I have the perfect thing in mind" The woman chirped, both their faces went pale. "Please Mira, anything else but that!" Elfman pleaded, the other woman had no clue what either of them were talking about, but she knew she didn't want any of it. "Y-yes, please have mercy!" Ever joined the man in his pleas. "What if we were to tell you something absolutely amazing, that you'll love, would you let us go then?!" Ever tried to negotiate, "Like what..?" She asked curiously. "Umm, that, uh" The tawny haired woman stumbled over her words trying to create a plausible lie, this continued for a few minutes until Elfman blurped out something that surprised everyone, even him. "We're dating!" The shocked expression on Mira's face explained it all. 

***

The blonde girl stood next to the Large green gate, her eyes fixed on the row of trees ahead of her as she contemplated the events of the day. A small smile crept onto her pale face; she was extremely glad that the arduous tasks of her week were finally complete and her last mission before she could rest for the two days in heaven she had before returning to actually getting out of bed was walking home. She was suddenly pulled from her thoughts by a warm hand on her shoulder, after jumping slightly she turned around to face the owner of the hand. She was greeted by a bright smile. "You ready to go?" The certain salmon-haired boy asked sa he tucked his hands into his pockets. "Yep, I'm really looking forward to doing nothing!" Lucy exclaimed cheerfully, "It's just the weekend, Luce, it's not like it's a holiday or something." She shrugged and began to walk towards the path; Natsu followed soon after.

The pebble coloured path winded from the school gate down towards the local park. Vibrant trees stood tall lining either side of it, they closely followed the meandering structure of the walkway. Underneath these trees was a thick carpet of emerald grass, dotted with a handful of buttercups and clusters of daisies. Fallen amber leaves had collected at the bases of many of the trees, the once full branches were beginning to go barren as the seasons started to change and autumn began to take over the land. The small, yet noticeable, breeze weaved through the trees and slightly rustled the leaves and lifted Lucy's beautiful blonde mane of hair. 

The two continued to walk through the scenic pathway before they came to a large field. The path laid along the side of the plain, but the grass ledge was cut off by a tarmac road, which the pathway made a sharp turn to follow. Parked on the road they were now walking towards was a bright red van, decorated in sweet cold treats with a large window on the side, and adorning a large plastic ice cream on the front. As they walked towards it, Lucy noticed how Natsu's eyes began to light up with excitement, he really was a child at heart. "Lucy, can w-" He began to ask but was interrupted. "I knew you were going to ask," The blonde began, "If you must~" She jokily sighed.

The boy ran up to the window, he then began to run back with two Mr Whippys with chocolate flakes. "Natsu! Don’t run with them!" Lucy barked at the boy, he then resumed his return to her walking, for obvious reasons. “Here you are,” He passed her one of the cones, “Is there any benches over there to sit on?” The blonde whipped her head round to scan the area, Natsu used her distraction as the perfect opportunity to lick around the base of her ice-cream, collecting up the dripping melted droplets. This, unfortunately for him, did not go to plan; half way through his second lick she turned around and wasn’t too happy with him taking her food. “Hey! Get off my ice-cream!” She pulled it away from him and shielded it with her hand, “Well, I bought it!” He counter argued, trying to pry her hand away, “Yeah, but you have your own!” He pouted, “But yours is better...” Lucy rolled her eyes. “Natsu, they came from the same machine. They taste idential.” She stated. “Just one more lick!” He pleaded. “Why? You have one!” The boy pouted once more, “Pleasssee” He whinned. The blonde sighed, it was like trying to reason with a three-year-old. “Fine.” She held the cone up towards him and he took a long lick round the side, resulting in a dot on his nose when he broke away from it. Lucy giggled softly, he just stood there confused. She then quickly swiped her thumb across his nose and licked the ice-cream of it before smiling. “Jeez, Natsu. It’s like I'm your mum,” She mumbled before continuing to walk down the path, he just quietly followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Ik it's cringy and cheesey, but I still thing this chapter is cute... Idk it's just so Fairy Tail to me you know? Like awkward totally implausible accidents, unnecessairy competion and banter, it's just so... Fairy Tail and it makes me smile. Anyway, you're nearly done, woo! Just the final stretch of one more chapter! I will warn you now, while this says it's complete, the actual story is nowhere near finished, this is just where I left it three years ago.


	8. Maids and motorbikes

“Welcome mast-er-students,” A woman with bubblegum pink hair and almost lifeless looking blue eyes began, “I am Miss Virgo and I will be your home economics teacher this year.” She placed her hand over her heart and bowed slightly, confusing some of the students standing before her. “As she said,” A different voice started. This one belonged to a woman with pearl hair, dressed in a wine-red knee-length dress that was decorated with baby pink frills around the deep v cut neckline, this detailing was completed with a bow in the centre of the dip. “She will be teaching you. Miss Virgo is new to teaching so be nice. But, since she used to be a full-time made her home skills are superb and she is willing to share these with you. Also, I was asked to,” The woman, Miss Stauss, looked at the piece of paper she had been holding, “let you know that ‘all bad maids must be punished when necessary and mistakes should not be tolerated’.” She smiled sweetly, “That’s all.” And with that she left the classroom.

The room’s powder blue walls reached high to the wood panelled ceiling, which stared down on the white wood flooring. Upon said floor, there were rows of counter tops which had stools neatly tucked under. Along with these desks, every workstation had a supply cabinet, which doubled as a work counter, and white enamel sink. In total, in the class there were two rows of these stations; six in each. Where Miss Virgo stood there was a demonstration station, wooden desk and large wall-mounted whiteboard. To the left of the woman stood a windowed door which lead into the locker-lined halls.

Miss Virgo, who was dressed in a black and white traditional style maid outfit, abruptly began to speak to the class in her monotone voice. “Today we are going to start the year off easy but making a simple recipe every maid should know,” The class in front of her listened, quietly awaiting further instruction, “Cake.” She finished. Erza’s eyes lit up as a smile crept onto her face. 

“All get into pairs and stand behind a workstation,” The maid called before turning towards the board and beginning to write. “I call Lucy!” Levy shouted while grabbing a confused blonde and dragging her to a counter, “You can’t just call dips on someone like that!” A certain salmon haired boy interjected stomping after the short bluenette, although, before he could reach them Gray caught his collar and pulled him backwards. “Come on flamebrain, you’re with me,” He said blankly while anxiously looking around. “Aww, boy love!” Levy cooed, Lucy snickered then made kissy-faces. Natsu then crossed his arms and grumbled something under his breath. “Gray~Sama!” Said boy immediately froze and let go of Natsu, causing him to hit the ground.

“Hey, Elsa!” He began angrily, “What was that for?!” No answer. A sudden flash of cerulean caught both of their attentions’. “Hey, Juvia...” She lifted his hands in hers, “Gray my love, will you be m-” Unfortunately for her, she was interrupted by him pulling his hands back, slinging his arm around Natsu, who was now standing, and forcing a smile. “Sorry but I have a partner, right pal?” The salmon haired boy raised an eyebrow, “Sure?” Juvia’s face suddenly became shadowed and her eyes became deadly, she shot Natsu a look before turning her back and walking away.

Erza watched all this with a smile on her face; normally, she would have interjected multiple times by now but the prospect of cake over ruled caring about their behaviour. She was roused from her thoughts by a tap on the shoulder, she turned to see a pair of piercing mahogany eyes, softened slightly due to the gentle smile on his face. “Partners?” he asked, Erza felt herself blush and tried her hardest to keep it from showing but against her best efforts it was visible. “Yes,” she answered, she then panicked at how forward she sounded, and her blush deepened. “Ah, I-um... I mean sure,” She tried to sound calm, but the pitch of her voice gave her embarrassment away. He just laughed, which didn’t help her embarrassment. “You’re so cute, Erza,” He said with a smile before walking to their workstation. This last comment caused her to mentally explode.  _ Flirt.  _

***

“Well done, Mas- class. Most of you have made delicious cake, which you may take home with you, good work. For the remainder of the lesson, tidy your stations and wash up.” Miss Virgo instructed. Erza started to wipe down the sides as Jellal collected up the used utensils and began to wash them. Once she finished her task she walked towards the sink, “Need a hand?” The man turned slightly to see her then quickly turned back, “You could start to dry up those bowls,” He referred to the two bowls sitting on the drying rack, droplets of water fell down from them like how beads of rain travels down a window the morning after a storm, leaving dewy trails which inter-twine with others. 

She somehow found herself mesmerized by their movements, “Erza?” The man said, calling her back into reality. After picking up a tea towel, she began to dry one of the bowls and zone out once more. Placing down the dry bowl, she absent-mindedly reached out for the second bowl but instead of feeling the cold, hard metal, she felt warmth. It took her a few seconds to realise what had happened, but when she did, she snapped her head down to see her hand atop of the man’s next to her, who was holding a measuring jug, gripping it slightly. Once she noticed, she immediately removed it then looked up to meet her friend’s gaze. His eyes were fixed on hers, a tint of pink grazed his cheeks and a look of slight shock was dawned on his face. The blood haired girl felt the heat raise up her neck onto her face, she then broke his eyes and suddenly the floor became so interesting to her that it was the only thing she wanted to look at. “Sorry,” She whispered, he turned back to what he was doing and chuckled, “It’s fine.” 

***

“I love art!” The small bluenette exclaimed to her friend as they walked down the hall towards their next lesson, “I’m no good at it though.” Her blonde bestie scoffed playfully, “One, you can’t possibly be worse than me and two, you say that about everything and end up being the best at it.” She listed while walking into the room which said ‘Art 2’ on the windowed door. “I know but this time I’m sure that I’m terrible,” Levy followed close behind. 

The two girls walked over to the large table that shielded the small, in comparison, brown wooden desk that sat almost centred in the room. The high walls were decorated with art work, some that would have the viewer staring in awe and some that would leave them in a confused state. Along with the art work, large windows opened up the room to the bright rays of natural light. “Oh, hello girls!” A woman with pearl hair chirped from the front of the class; she stood with a gentle smile on her face with her hands held together behind her back. “Miss Strauss? Are you our teacher?” The bluenette asked, Lucy’s face contorted in a confused manner, “I thought you were a music teacher?” The woman chuckled softly, “I’m not your teacher, I'm only the cover. Mr Jonah isn’t in today,” She replied kindly. 

Levy walked to one of the grey stools that lined the table, placed her bag and book down and took a seat. The blonde quickly followed suit. The class gradually filled with familiar and not so familiar faces as Lucy gazed over the groups of people scattered around the room. A loud shrieking ring cut through the room. Miss Strauss cleared her throat, calling the class’ attention towards her. She briefly explained the lesson before sitting down. “Miss, why’re you sitting with your hands behind you?” The bluenette inquired. Before talking, the woman seemed to search for an answer, her eyes roaming the room nervously. “No reason in particular, I just find it comfortable.”

Suddenly, the door opened hitting the wall with a noticeably loud thud. A tall figure with a mane of unruly raven hair sauntered into the class, Levy watched the man walk towards the only empty table at the back of the class until his eyes caught her gaze. She quickly looked away, a slight glow spreading on her cheeks. “Mr Redfox, mind sharing why you’re 10 minutes late to my lesson?” Miss Strauss asked with a stern expression; he met her with an equally intense glare, one which anyone other than the equivalently stubborn woman would have backed down to and walked to the desk she was sat before. He passed her a note then turned and positioned himself comfortably in his stool and began to scribble in his note pad, not bothering to find out the lesson objective or the current task. “Tsk, what’s up with his attitude?” Lucy whispered to her friend receiving a hum in response, this caught her attention.

~ Flashback ~

"Gajeel?" She looked down at her hands,  _ I can't believe I'm asking this,  _ "Hm?" He responded. She took a deep breath, "Would you be my duet partner?"

“What?” The raven-haired man asked turning around to face the small girl. “U-um, I mean, I just thought maybe you’d want to because you-you’re really good and I don’t know anyone else who would be  _ my _ partner and I need one if I wanna enter the competition, which I do and-and yeah...” Levy spoke quickly, her face flushing. Her soft eyes travelled to his intense blood-red pair and quickly shifted back to her hands, which were firmly gripping her pale-yellow sweater vest. “Sure,” He spoke, his face as stern as always. “It’s fine if you don- wait... Did you say yes?” She interrupted herself, shocked. Gajeel shrugged, “I got nothing better to do,” He looked back down to his guitar. His eyes widened when he felt slim arms wrap around his neck and heard a small ‘thank you’ in his ear. “Sure...” Just as he was about to hug back the short girl jumped back leaving his arm awkwardly hovering just above where she was. The bluenette’s face glowed red, she was shocked with her own actions, “I-er sorry. Bye!” She turned and sprinted out the room. Gajeel stood up and closed the door, which had been left open, the sat again. “...what just happened...?”

~ End Flashback ~

A faint glow spread across Levy’s face as she recalled the event, she glanced back at the man who plagued her thoughts and sighed under her breath. Lucy eyed her sceptically before turning behind to meet eyes with the man her friend had been stealing glances at; when he noticed that she noticed he was looking, he tsk and continued scribbling in this sketch pad. The blonde shrugged it off as coincidence.

***

The lesson had ended and most of the students that once filled the class had escaped to lunch, but not Lucy and Levy. The two girls had stayed back to help reorganise the art supplies. “So,” The blonde began, “Have you found a duet partner yet?” The bluenette twisted the paint brushes she held around in her hands awkwardly, trying to find the right words to end this conversation without further questioning. “Yep!” She chirped happily, Lucy smiled slightly. “Who?” Levy froze, the one word she dreaded hearing was uttered. Of course, she wanted to tell Lucy, she hated lying to her friends but if she told her that Gajeel was her partner she’d get suspicious. She also hadn’t told her best friend that she had been tutoring said man for the past 3 weeks. Lucy would definitely get the wrong idea. “Um... It’s a surprise!” She said with a smile. “Aww, come on. Tell me!” The blonde whined. She smiled wider and put the paint brushes she was holding into a pot, “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise, silly.” Lucy pouted and folded her arms, “I seriously have to wait 3 more weeks just to find out who you’re singing with?” She asked in a ‘really’ tone. The smaller girl nodded and looked away.

Levy jumped as the door opened and slammed against the wall. It creaked as it swung from the recoil. Lucy sighed as a certain salmon-haired boy walked into the room. The blonde marched up to him, meeting him in the middle of the room. “Are you crazy?! You could’ve sung the door off its hinge!” She scolded, pointing to the poor door, which was still swinging slightly. “That doesn’t matter at the moment! You need to come with me, I found the perfect song for you to sing!” He spoke excitedly. Lucy looked to Levy, as if she was asking for permission with her eyes, the bluenette shooed her away playfully while smiling. The blonde repaid the smile happily before being dragged out the room.

After putting away the rest of the, now clean, paint brushes, the girl collected up her stuff and walked out of the classroom and into the hall. She walked slowly through the silence until she heard voices from one of the other art rooms. Her curiosity got the best of her as she leaned against the wall next to the door, which was left ajar, and quietly listened into the conversation. The voices were slightly muffled, but Levy could make out a female voice which was hissing quietly and a louder male voice, she could hear the smirk in its tone. “You said only one lesson!” The woman sounded angry, “And you said that the old man wouldn’t let me back here, yet here we are.” The man had a smooth deep voice. 

“Laxus, I swear to any god there may be that I will kill you one day if you do not take this stupid rope off me this instant!” Her voice was laced with venom.  _ Is that Miss Strauss? _ Levy wondered as she listened. “Maybe I will, if you beg,” His smirk grew. She growled out of frustration. “You pig!” She snarled. “I can’t teach with my hands tied behind my back! Plus, I did the stupid punishment already. You said if I lost this bet, I would have to be like this for one lesson, and I was! Now untie me before I tell Makarov that you’re here!” Her voice was threatening but obviously not enough, “I love it when you talk to me like that.~” He breathed. Levy’s face flushed slightly as she heard the slight rustle of clothes rubbing together.  _ I shouldn’t be listening to this... _ She thought, not moving in the slightest. “I hate you...” the woman murmured, her voice muffled more than before. “I love you too, Mira.” He cooed. There was more clothes rustling before the woman spoke again, “Untie me.” The man chuckled slightly, muffled like she was, “Fine.” 

There was more rustling the footsteps, the bluenette took that as her cue to leave. She scurried away just before Miss Strauss emerged from the room 

***

The sun was beginning to set on the school, the late afternoon filled the sky as the air began to crisp. Gajeel stared down at his phone screen as he leaned against a large tree which looked upon the rows of cars opposite it. 

Wendy: where u at?

Gajeel: waitin for shrimp

Y?

Wendy: no reason~

Mum and dad arent home btw

Gajeel: where they at?

Wendy: went out

Shopping I think

Gajeel: k

He was brought back to the real world by his name. A short bluenette came into his view; her hair was messy, and her shirt was partially untucked, she was no longer wearing her pale-yellow sweater vest or blazer. Her face was slightly flushed. The man found himself drawn to the top of her shirt, her tie was loose around her neck and the top to buttons of her shirt were undone, revealing more of her neck and collar bone. “Sorry I'm late!” She began, slightly out of breath, “I just had gym and it ran over, I changed as quickly as I could though.” She then took her blazer from where she had rested it over her shoulder bag, placed the bag down on the ground and slipped it over her slim shoulders. “That’s why ya look like a mess then,” He remarked walking to her. He took her bag from the floor and slung it over his shoulder. “Hey!” she puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms, he turned around to walk away, “I never said it’s a bad thing.” He began to walk towards the rows of cars, she ran and caught up, “Looks good on ya, Shrimp.” He smirked. She couldn’t help the small blush take found its way onto her pale face, against her greatest efforts. 

The tall man walked up to a pitch-black Harley Davidson Dyna Sport Glide. Levy followed, eyeing the bike curiously, “Is this yours?” She asked, shocked. “Yep,” He replied, “Take this.” He said, shoving the bag into her hands. “Where’s yours?” She asked, hoping that the answer wasn’t ‘don’t have one’ or ‘at home’ or something along those lines. “In my locker, don’t need it.” He answered quickly, getting on the bike. “Get on,” He commanded, starting the bike. Levy looked at the bike sceptically, “Where’re the helmets?” She queried, he simple chuckled in response as if to say ‘yeah right’. She hopped onto the back of the bike, clutching her shoulder bag tightly, her heart beating noticeably hard in her chest. “Hold on,” Gajeel said before abruptly zooming forward. The bluenette’s thin arms wrapped tightly around his torso and she set her head on his back, pulling their bodies close together. She squeezed her eyes closed as her heart rate quickened.

The drive was quick but terrifying, for Levy at least. The bike came to a stop in front of the tall man’s house. He went to get up but was held down by small arms, he chuckled to himself and smiled, “We’re here.” He announced, she slowly let go and shuffled of the bike, her face pale and hands shaky. The small girl looked around, slightly spaced out, Gajeel took the bag she was clutching from her hands and slung it over his shoulder again. “You okay, Shrimp?” He walked towards the door, she followed, “Y-yeah, I’ve just never been on a motorbike before.” Her voice was slightly shaky, the man pulled a rusting bronze key from his trouser pocket and unlocked the door. “I could have died!” She exclaimed as he pushed the door open.

As they walked through the threshold, a small girl came running down the stairs towards them. “Hey Gaji,” She said as she walked past him to Levy, “Hey Levy! How are you?” She asked happily. Gajeel stared as they continued to converse, completely ignoring him; he shrugged it off and walked up the stairs. Once he got to the top, he went to turn into his room and glanced into his sister’s room, which she had left the door open to, expecting to see it empty and being so surprised with what he saw that he took a double take before raising an eyebrow. 

He turned to the stairs before yelling, “Hey, Wendy!” She and Levy looked up at him, “Who’s this?” He asked, pointing into her room at the boy sat on her bed. Wendy blushed slightly, “U-m, he’s Romeo, my friend from school.” The other bluenette giggled quietly, “Romeo, huh~” She teased, Gajeel’s stare deepened as he looked back from the girls to Romeo, who gulped, clearly nervous. Levy started up the stairs, followed closely by the smaller girl. “Just friends, right?” The man was still glaring at the boy; he was dressed in a similar uniform to Wendy and had dark blue-ish purple, almost black, hair paired with dark hickory eyes and an orange scarf in the place of his tie. “Gajeel!” Wendy squeaked as the other girl giggled sweetly, “You’re so protective, Gaji~.” She sang teasingly, “She’s a big girl, let her live a little.” Levy joked. He ‘tsked’ and walked into his room, holding the door open for the small girl. As she walked in, the man watched the other door shut in front of him.

He put her bag down on his bed and walked over to his drawers, taking out some grey sweatpants and a white wife-beater. He pulled his tie off slowly as he watched Levy dig around in her bag, her hands emerged holding a small ball of clothes. He began to unbutton his shirt, silently hoping she would stay where she was to change but, as expected, she walked towards the bathroom. As he continued to change, he found his mind wondering. He thought about normal teenage boy things, like his Shrimp in a messy, half-wet, uniform, laid out on his motorbike on a summers evening and her sliding her shirt off her smooth, slim shoulders as she changed before him. Normal things. 

When she came out of the small room, Gajeel was sat on his bed, playing random tunes on his electric green and black electric guitar. He looked up when he heard the door click close quietly. Levy was wearing dark blue and violet floral short shorts and a casual white top, she walked over to her bag, which had been moved onto the floor by the desk, and shoved her school clothes in. She then moved to the bed and sat opposite the man. He had one leg off the bed and the other folded, so his foot was laying atop it, his guitar rested on both. The bluenette, on the other hand, had her legs crossed so she was facing him directly. 

He continued to pluck and strum randomly until Levy spoke, “You’re really good.” Gajeel barely moved before he spoke, “I know, ya better be too otherwise this’ll have been a waste of my time.” She frowned and got up to grab her phone before sitting once more, “I’m good, I guess, you said you had nothing better to do anyway. If I'm wasting your time just say and I'll go,” Her voice was calm and plain, “Sure...” He felt bad for what he said but he obviously wasn’t going to admit that to her so instead he tried to change the subject. “Do ya have any songs in mind?” She smiled slightly and flicked around on her phone,  _ success! _ “Do you know ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’, the Mayday Parade version?” The man thought for a second 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, well done! You did it! So yeah, this is where me from three years ago got bored and stopped writing... It's nice to know that not much has changed and I still have the attention stan of an ADHD border collie... Anyway, if you enjoyed (somehow??) be sure to keep a look out for the new, improved and hopefully extended version that I'm working on currently. <3


End file.
